The Hand of
God in History
Notes on Important Eras of
Fulfilling Prophecy
By William A. Spicer
" For He is the living God"
REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSN.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
South Bend, Ind. New York City
Digitized by the Center for Adventist Research
COPYRIGHT, I913
By
Review & Herald Publishing Assn.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Digitized by the Center for Adventist Research
CHAPTER HEADINGS
PAGE
I The Divine Hand in Human History • . . 7
II The Witness to the Living God . , . 13
III Witness Borne to Ancient Nations . . . 20
IV The Witness to Alexander the Great . .' 28
V A Great Prophetic Measuring Line . . • 32
VI Beginning of the Great Prophetic Period . 41
VII Witness of Astronomy to History and Proph-
ecy . . . . . ... . 52
VIII The Greek Olympiads and the Date B. c.
457 ■ • . .. . ... 55
IX "Unto Messiah the Prince" .' . . . 61
X "He Shall Confirm the Covenant With
Many" . ...... . ... 66
XI The Fall of Jerusalem 76
XII Flash-Light Views of Prophecy ... 84
XIII Rise and Work of the Papacy . ' . 91
XIV Beginning of the 1260 Years of Papal
Supremacy . , -. . . . . 103
XV Ending of the 1260 Years- of Papal Suprem-
acy . . • . . . . . • ' . . in
XVI The "Two Witnesses" . . ... ,121
XVII The Triumph of the Two Witnesses . .132
XVIII "The Time of the End" . . . . 142
XIX Increase of Knowledge 150
XX The Era of Missions ... . . 160
XXI The Era of Bible Circulation . . . . 173
XXII The Coming of the Judgment-Hour . . 189
XXIII The Announcement of . the Judgment-
Hour , . . . . -.195
XXIV The Advent Movement . . . 201
XXV The Advent Message of Revelation 14 . 208
XXVI Providential Agencies for Quick Work . 217
XXVII "Then Shall the End Come" . . . . 237
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GOD'S CHALLENGE TO UNBELIEF
The "Sure Word of Prophecy"
" I have declared the former things
from the beginning; and they went forth
out of my mouth, and I showed them ; I
did them suddenly, and they came to
pass. Because I knew that thou art
obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew,
and thy brow brass; I have even from the
beginning declared it to thee ; before it
came to pass X showed it thee : lest
thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done
them, and my graven image, and my
molten image, hath commanded them.
Thou hast heard, see all this; and will
not ye declare it ? " Isa. 43:3-6.
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CHAPTER I
The Divine Hand in Human History
The story of human history is a fascinating theme
for study. An old English essayist, in a fine para-
graph, strikes a note that touches a chord in the heart
of every lover of good books. In an essay, "From
an Old Book-Shelf," he says: —
I go into my library, and all history unrolls before me.
. . . I see the pyramids building; I hear the shouting of the
armies of Alexander; I feel the ground shake beneath the
march of Cambyses. I sit as in a theater — the stage is
time, the play is the play of the world. What a spectacle
it is! What kingly pomp! what processions file past! what
cities burn to heaven! what crowds of captives are dragged
at the chariot wheels of conquerors! . . . The silence of the
unpeopled plains, the outcomings and ingoings of the patri-
archs, Abraham and Ishmael, Isaac in the fields at eventide,
Rebekah at the well, Jacob's guile, Esau's face reddened by
desert sun-heat, Joseph's splendid funeral procession, — all
these things I find within the boards of my Old Testament.
What a silence in those old books as of a half-peopled world !
What bleating of flocks! what greeji pastoral rest! what in-
dubitable human existence! Across brawling centuries of
blood and war I hear the bleating of Abraham's flocks, the
tinkling of the bells of Rebekzth's camels.— " Essays," Alex-
ander Smith.
And in these latter days a new thing has come to
pass touching this matter of the study of history.
We have not only long- treasured volumes on the
"old book-shelf, " with their heart-gripping story
7
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8 The Hand of God in History
of the past; but we have a new "book-shelf " —
historical sources that students of a half-century
ago never dreamed of. The pick and spade of the
explorer have uncovered buried records that give
a new setting to the history of early empires.
In these ancient tablets, brought forth to light
within this last generation, the stones cry out in
corroboration of the Scripture record. We hear the
voices of the Pharaohs. The bricks without straw
t n< ?? m r * m *w ^tt tjt? .
Kha - za - ki - a - u la - u - da - ai
Hezekiah of Judah.
- ~*n m 4s -*n »gfs hp- i
Ur - sa - li - im - mil ali ' sharru - ti -shu
Jerusalem his royal city.
Lines from baked-clay cylinder of Sennacherib *
(in British Museum) • t? ' .
in the walls of the storehouses of Pi thorn "almost
reecho the rigor of Pharaoh's words." The voice of
Sennacherib, of Assyria, speaks to us in the boastful
records of his campaigns, and the sayings of Nebu-
chadnezzar are repeated to us from bricks and cylin-
ders on which the ancient scribes worked at his own
dictation. *
This development is in keeping with that proph-
* Sennacherib's account evidently refers to his first investment
of Jerusalem. See 2 Kings 18: 13-16. He says: "I then besieged
Hezekiah of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke, and I cap-
tured forty-six of his strong, cities and fortresses. . . . (Hezekiah)
himself, like a caged bird, I shut up within Jerusalem, his royal city.
. . . The fear of the majesty of my sovereignty overwhelmed
Hezekiah, . . . and he despatched after me his messenger to my
royal city Nineveh to pay tribute and to make submission." —
British Museum Catalogue.
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The Divine . Hand
9
ecy of the "time of the end," which declared that
knowledge was to be increased, and light shed forth
from the unsealed book of the prophetic scriptures.
* iVa - fo' - Mm- ku-du~- ur - ri -. t« - su - ur
Nebuchadnezzar,
i7mr Babili
king of Babylon,
E - - il u
(the temple) E-sagil and
2- ?? J> 5«5U>
- Tit - l»
N patron of
(the temple) E-zida,
apZw asharidu sha * iVafo< - ap/a - u - su - ur
eldest son of Nabopolassar,
' s/wr Babili a - net ku
king of * Babylon, am I.
Inscription on bronze doorstep, with translation (from
British Museum catalogue)
Dan. 12 : 4. Prof. Ira M. Price, speaking of the study
of history, says: —
This is the century of romance, — romance in exploration,
in discovery, in invention, in thought, and in life. The
achievements of man have far exceeded the most sanguine
dreams of the forefathers. We have not only made but
discovered vast periods of history". ... It has been dug
out of mounds, tombs, and pyramids. It has been found
written on granite, alabaster, wood, clay, and papyrus, It
has been translated from tablets, rolls, cylinders, statues, and
temples. Through a series of marvelous discoveries and ro-
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10
The Hand of God in History
mantic events we have been let into the secrets of wonderful
centuries of hitherto unknown peoples and events. . . .
Now through the cooperation of explorer, archeologist, and
linguist, we are the heirs of what was formerly regarded as
prehistoric times. . . . These marvelous revelations from
the archives of the nations of the past have painted for us a
new background, in fact our first background, of the Old"
Testament.— 11 The Monuments and the Old Testament," pages
17, 18.
Regarded from any serious point of view, the
study of history is of deepest interest. But from the
viewpoint of divine prophecy, the study becomes
one of eternal interest. The course of human history
is one continuous testimony to fulfilled prophecy.
And prophecy explains and illuminates the record
of history. In the light of the "sure word of proph-
ecy" this age-long drama of mankind assumes a
meaning and reveals a guiding motive quite beyond
the apprehension of unaided human vision.
By aid of divine revelation we see not only man-
kind moving across the stage of time, but we see the
hand of God in history. Angels from heaven mingle
with the actors in earthly scenes. Evil angels are
there, too. And above all, we catch glimpses of the
living God ruling and overruling, seeking to rescue
and save, restraining and guiding, and shaping all
things for the eventual carrying out of his own divine
purpose in the creation of the earth and of man.
As we watch the moving scenes, and see how ac-
curately the predictions of the prophetic word have
been fulfilled in great crises in human history, we
know of a surety that "the Most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he
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The Divine Hand
ii
will," and are led anew to join in King Nebuchad-
nezzar^ ascription of praise to —
"him that liveth forever, whose" dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation :
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing:
and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and
among the inhabitants of the earth: and hone can stay his
hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" Dan. 4: 34, 35,
. In the migrations of the sons of Noah and the
* spreading abroad of the races of mankind, in the rise
and fall of empires, and in the history of the believ-
ing children of God, fulfilment of prophecy is seen.
The world has not escaped from the hand of its Crea-
tor. Still —
" Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround,
Upheld by thee, by thee inspired with breath."
Writing for the Roman pagans, in the first century
of our era, Josephus, the Jewish historian, cited the
fulfilment of the prophecies of Daniel as evidence of
God's hand in history. After reviewing the proph-
ecies concerning Babylon, Medo- Persia, Greece, and
Rome, even to the predicted taking of Jerusalem by
the Romans, he drew this lesson for the Epicurean
teachers of a mechanical evolution : —
All these things did this man [Daniel] leave in writing,
as God had showed them to him, insomuch that such as read
his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, would
wonder at the honor wherewith God honored Daniel ; and may
thence discover how the Epicureans are in error, who cast
Providence out of human life, and do not believe that God
takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the universe is
governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal
nature, but say that the world is carried along of its own
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12
The Hand of God in History
accord, without a ruler and a curator; which, were it des-
titute of a guide to conduct, as they imagine, it would be like
ships without pilots, which we see drowned by the winds, or
like chariots without drivers, which are overturned ; so would
the world be dashed to pieces by its being carried without a
Providence, and so perish and come to naught. So that,
by the foremen tioned predictions of Daniel, those men seem
to me very much to err from the truth, who determine that
God exercises no providence over human affairs; for if that
were the case, that the world went on by mechanical neces-
sity, we should not see that all things would come to pass
according to his prophecy. — "Antiquities" book 10, chap. n.
Of a truth, a divine Pilot has been at the helm of
human history through all this world's stormy pas-
sage. And he is still the living God, at the helm.
" O God of Jacob, by whose hand
Thy people still are led."
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CHAPTER II
The Witness to the Living God
Two great evidences bear witness to the living
and the true God, — his created works, and the ful-
filment of his word of prophecy.
• ■ - *
His Created Works
Creative power is the great mark of distinction
of the living God : —
" But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an
everlasting King: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and
the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Thus
shall ye say unto- them, The gods that have not made the
heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth,
and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by
his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and
hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion." Jer.
10: 10-12.
The earth and all created things in it bear con-
stant witness to the living God: —
"The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firma-
ment showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto .night showeth knowledge. There is no
speech nor language; their voice is not heard." Ps. 19: 1-3.
The language of the sun and moon and stars is
known to all, lettered or unlettered. As Addison
sings, —
"What though no real voice nor sound
Amid, their radiant orbs is found?
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i 4
The Hand of God in History
In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine."
The apostle Paul summed up the testimony borne
" Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor
until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are thy
works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth
is full of thy riches."
to all mankind by God's created works in these
words : —
"That which may be known of God is manifest in [/'to,''
margin] them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
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Witness to the Living God 15
even his eternal power. and godhead; so that they are without
excuse." Rom. 1:19,20.
And the memorial or sign of this creative power,
the seal or mark by which the true and living God
is known, is the Sabbath day: "Hallow my Sabbaths;
and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye
may know that I am the Lord your God." Eze.
20: 20. On this text, Dr. Wm. Hales, the chronolo-
gist, supplied a striking comment, as follows : —
A sign between God and his people (Eze. 20 : 20) ; and a
mark of separation from the idolatrous Gentiles, who uni-
versally violated it, as we learn from the following exceptions
in a curious passage of Julian the Apostate [Greek text omit-
ted]: "What nation is there, by the gods, who do not think
that -except the first commandment, Thou shalt worship no
other gods, and the fourth, Remember the Sabbath, they
ought to observe "the other commandments of the decalogue?"
— " Chronology, 11 Vol. I, page 118.
The first precept commands all men to worship
only the true God, and the fourth tells who the true
God is, the Creator of heaven and earth. Thus the
Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the sign of
the true God, and the keeping of it the seal or mark of
loyalty to him.
The " Sure Word of Prophecy "
The power to foretell the future is a distinguish-
ing characteristic of divinity. The Lord says: —
" Declare us things for to come. Show the things that are
to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." Isa.
41: 22, 23.
Only the living God can do this. The prophetic
scriptures supply evidence by which any one who
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1 6 The Hand of God in History
will face the facts may know of a surety that the Bible
is the voice of this true and living God.
Here is the Lord's open challenge to doubt or
unbelief: —
"I have declared the former things from the beginning;
and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them;
I did them suddenly, and they came to pass." Isa. 48:3.
Why has the Lord thus uttered prophecies?
He tells us: —
"Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck
is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the
beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed
it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them,
and my graven image, and my molten image, hath com-
manded them." Verses 4, 5.
Only the Christian Scriptures contain accurate
historic prophecies, outlining the course of history
generations before the events described took place.
The Hindu may say, "The Christian Bible is
good for the Christian; but we also have our sacred
books, the Vedas, which are good for the Hindus."
But we ask, "Did your sacred books, written in
ancient times, describe in clear outline the course
of history then future, and can you point to the
fulfilment?" And more than once I have heard/the
reply from Hindu lips, "No; we know nothing of
historic prophecies in our sacred books."
It is. because the living God is the author of the
Bible; and he only can declare the end from the begin-
ning. The sacred books of all other religions pre-
sent the picture of man talking to God. The Book
of books is God talking to man. In the Christian
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Witness to the Living God
17
Scriptures God speaks from heaven, and man answers.
In the non-Christian writings man speaks toward
heaven, and there is never an answer back from a
living God who does things on earth. Sir Alfred Lyall
" They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they,
but they see not."
well puts the dreary loneliness of that silence, in his
" Meditations of a Hindu Prince:" —
"And the myriad idols around me, and the legion of mutter-
ing priests,
The revels and rites unholy, the dark, unspeakable feasts!
What have they wrung from the Silence? hath even a whis-
per come
Of the Secret, whence and whither? Alas, for the gods are
' dumb!"
In the Christian Scriptures of Truth we hear the
voice of the living God, the voice of the Good Shep-
herd seeking the lost sheep.
2
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1 8 The Hand of God in History
One evening, in India, I sat with a bright young
man, a Hindu student in the Calcutta University.
The Christian Bible was an unknown book to him.
We studied the words of Daniel before Nebuchad-
nezzar, king of Babylon, as he interpreted the king's
divinely given dream of the great metallic image, with
its head of gold, breast of silver, sides of
brass, and legs of iron. (Daniel 2.) The
prophet outlined the general course of
the history of universal empire from the
golden age of Babylon, under Nebuchad-
nezzar, to the end of time : —
" And after thee shall arise another kingdom
[Medo-Persia] inferior to thee, and another
third kingdom of brass [Grecia], which shall
bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth
kingdom shall be strong as iron [Rome; "the
iron monarchy of Rome," as Gibbon calls it]:
. . . and . . . the kingdom shall be divided
[the kingdoms that arose within the western
empire of Rome, represented by the modern
kingdoms of western Europe]. . . . And in
the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a
kingdom, which shall never be destroyed."
As we followed the prophetic outline from Baby-
lon to Rome and its division, ! asked the student —
a Hindu, remember — if from his own study of history
he could say whether this prophecy, written in Baby-
lon two thousand five" hundred years ago, had been
fulfilled. He replied: " I know that this describes
the course of history, just as it has come to pass; and
in the exact order of events."
And with a face expressing surprise and awe,
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Witness to the Living God
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he looked up and said again, with the force of sudden
and deep conviction, " Only the living God could have
written that before it came to pass!"
It is the truth. Divine prophecy bears witness,
sure and certain,, that the voice of the living God
speaks in the Holy Bible.
The need of the world is to know the living God.
The Sabbath, the memorial of his creative power,
is the divinely ordained sign by which men may know
him. The prophetic scriptures that speak with the
voice of the living God declare that the last days have
come, and that the second advent of Christ is near
at hand. Thus the Sabbath and the advent truths
of God's Holy Word constitute the key-note of the
gospel message for this day and generation.
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CHAPTER III
Witness Borne to Nations in Ancient Times
We select two illustrations of the manner in
which the fulfilment of time prophecies bore witness
of the living God to the nations in ancient times.
The record shows that when the time comes for the
work to be done, no power can stay his hand ; heaven
and earth are moved for the accomplishment of the
divine purpose.
1. The Deliverance From Egypt/
The Lord uttered a time prophecy when he made
this promise to Abraham and his seed: —
" Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a
land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall af-
flict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom
they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward. shall they come
out with great substance. ... In the fourth generation they
shall come hither again : for the iniquity of the Amorites is
not yet full." Gen. 15: 13-16.
V
No doubt as the people of Israel groaned under
their bondage, with Egypt seemingly ever more cruel
and powerful, all hope of deliverance well-nigh fled.
But God had promised; and he never forgets his
promises.
In Stephen's last sermon, before the council at
Jerusalem, the martyr spoke as follows of this promise
to Abraham : —
"But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which
20
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Witness in Ancient Times
21
God had sworn to Abraham, . . . in which time Moses was
born." Acts 7: 17, 20.
As the time of the prophecy was drawing near,
God began to prepare the agencies for the deliverance.
The Lord is never overtaken- unready. As D'Au-
bigne says: —
God takes ages to prepare his work, but when the hour
comes, accomplishes it by the feeblest instruments. To do
great things by small means is the law of God. — "History
of the Reformation" book 2, chap. 1.
So, by the long schooling of forty years in Egypt
and forty years in the land of Midian, Moses was
prepared for the work.
The might of Egypt was lifted up against the
divine purpose. But the Lord says in Isaiah, " I gave
Egypt for thy ransom/ ' Chapter 43:3. The time
had come for the prophecy to be fulfilled; and there,
by his signs and wonders, the Lord bore witness to
all the nations. Forty years, later, as the spies en-
tered Jericho, they learned that- still the nations re-
membered those mighty works of God. Rahab said
to them: — -
" I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that .
your terror is fallen upon us. . . . For we have heard how the
Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came
out of Egypt. . . . And as soon as we had heard these things,
our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more cour-
age in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is
God in heaven above, and in earth beneath." Joshua 2:9-11.
They had learned of the living God in heaven who
doeth things on earth. # Where there was no way
he u made the depths of the sea a way."
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22 The Hand of God in History
2. The Deliverance From Babylon
Again, a time prophecy was uttered, promising
deliverance to captives in a strange land; and all the
nations saw the arm of God made bare in bringing
about the fulfilment.
Jeremiah the prophet had foretold the doom of
Jerusalem. Its people had rejected the counsels of
the God of Israel, whose protection alone had warded
off conquest by their more powerful neighbors. Now
it was declared : —
"This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonish-
ment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon
seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years
are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and
that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity." Jer. 25:
II, 12.
The time of the promise was drawing near — the
ending of the seventy years. The nations were in
convulsion. It was a crisis in human history. The
time had come for the living God to fulfil his word.
Cyrus the Persian was the commander of the
army that overthrew Babylon. More than one hun-
dred years before Cyrus was born, the prophet Isaiah
had written : —
"Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose
right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and
I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-
leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut." Isa. 45: 1.
For nearly if not quite two centuries that prophecy
had stood written on the parchment roll. The night
came when the army of Cyrus was to make -its attack
upon Babylon. The golden city, inside its mighty
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Witness in Ancient Times
23
walls, .scoffed at the besiegers. Belshazzar made a
feast, in which, with a thousand of his lords, he drank
defiance to the living God from the cups of gold and
silver taken from the temple in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile the troops of Cyrus were entering be-
neath the outer walls, where the Euphrates River
flowed into the city and out again. By trenches far
above the city, dug by thousands of soldiers, the river
had been drained off into low-lying marshes, until
the waters were so lowered where the river entered
beneath the city walls that the soldiers could march
in along the river bed. But even so they would
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24* The Hand of God in History -
ordinarily have gained little; for massive walls lined
the river banks inside the city. Had the gates of
these river walls been shut, the troops of Cyrus would
have been helpless; in fact, as Herodotus suggests,
they might have been caught by the Chaldeans "as
in a trap."
But a century or two before, the prophecy had
been written: "The gates shall not be shut." So it
was that night. Careless and confident and drunken,
the Babylonians had left the river gates open, and
the Persian troops were rushing into the city even as
the mystic hand was writing the doom of Babylon
on the wall of Belshazzar's palace. That night the
dominion of the world passed into the hands of the
Medes and Persians.
The Chaldean scribe who at the time wrote the
story on a clay tablet (which was secured by the
British Museum in the year 1879) closed his record
with the words: —
On the sixteenth " day, Gobryas, pasha of the land of
Gutium, and the troops of Cyrus, without a battle, entered
Babylon. — From tablet "Annals of Nabonidus" quoted by-
C. /. Ball, in "Light From the East."
That provision foretold by the prophet so long
before: — "the gates shall not be shut" — turned the
scale of world-empire.
But Cyrus was not only the rod in the hand of
Providence for the punishment of Babylon; he was
to be the agent for the deliverance of the Lord's people
from captivity. Isaiah's prophecy had said of him : —
"He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure;
even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the :
temple, Thy foundation shall be laid." Isa. 44:28.
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- Witness in Ancient Times
2 5
The seventy years of the captivity were at an end,,
and it was time for the work of restoration to begin
according to the prophecy. Josephus, the Jewish
historian, says that this prophecy came to the knowl -
edge of Cyrus : —
This was made known to Cyrus by his reading the book
which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies. . . .
This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred forty years before
the temple was demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read
this, and admired the divine power, an earnest desire and am-
bition seized' upon him to fulfil what was so written. — " An-
iquities" book 2, chap. I.
How Cyrus fulfilled the word'written is told in
Scripture : —
"Now in the first year of "Cyrus king, of Persia, that the
word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be ful-
filled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia,
" that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom,
and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of
Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the king-
doms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an
house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among
you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up
to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the
Lord God of Israel (he is the God), which is in Jerusalem."
Ezra i : 1-3.
Thus witness to the living God — 11 he is the God "
— was borne by a master of th.e world before all
nations; and when the seventy years of the prophecy
were fulfilled, the return of the Jewish people from
captivity began.
In the story of the rebuilding of the temple after
the return to Jerusalem, an incident is recorded in
Scripture which draws aside the veil for a moment,
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The Hand of God in History
and gives us a thrilling view of the work that angels
from heaven are doing in this world of ours.
As soon as the work was fairly going forward,
opposition arose. Ezra says : —
" Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the
people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired
counselors against them,, to frustrate their purpose, all the
days of Cyrus." Ezra 4:4, 5.
The scene now shifts from Jerusalem to the court
of Cyrus, in Persia. The hired counselors are there
seeking to turn the king against the work that he had
authorized at Jerusalem in accordance with the
purpose of God. At. the same time Daniel, the
prophet, is in Persia, by the -river Tigris.
For three weeks Daniel had been specially seeking
God in prayer. At last an angel came to answer
his cry. ".Fear not, Daniel," the angel said; "for
from the first day that thou didst set thine heart
to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God,
thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words."
But why had the angel delayed his appearance
for three weeks, if from the first Daniel's prayer was
heard? The angel told why: —
"But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me
one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes
["the first" of the chief princes, margin], came to help me*,
and I remained there with the kings of Persia." Dan. 10: 13.
It is all plain, — the hired attorneys, and, no
doubt, the representatives of the Jews at the Persian
court; the king wavering, and inclined to yield to the
opposers of God's plan and purpose; and there, too,
unseen by mortal eyes, were angels from heaven,
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Witness in Ancient Times 27
working day after day to restrain the evil counsel and
to lead the king in the right way.
And at last the Prince of the host, Michael him-
self, came to help in the great crisis. The king was
prevailed upon to do the right, and the , work at
Jerusalem went forward according to the prophecy.
We know that these same angels of God are still
abroad in the earth, ministering to the least of the
heirs of salvation, and standing unseen in the courts
of kings or in the halls of legislation.
The God who declared things to come and brought
them to pass, arid who delivered his children in ancient
days, is still the living God. As King Darius once
proclaimed him to "all people, nations, and lan-
guages,"—
"He is the living God, and steadfast forever, and his
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion
shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and
he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who
hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." Dan.
6: 26, 27.
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CHAPTER IV
The Witness to Alexander the Great
One incident illustrative of the way in which
divine prophecy bore witness to kings and conquerors
of old is so strikingly related by Joseph us that even
in this brief review it should not be passed over.
A new era was dawning in the history of the world.
The dominion so long held by Asia was passing into
European hands. The "sure word of prophecy' '
had declared it generations before. In the last year
of the Babylonian monarchy, Daniel the prophet was
shown in vision the ram with two horns, pushing
westward, and the goat that "came from the west,"
with a " notable horn between his eyes." The prophet
saw this fleet goat from the west run upon the ram,
• arid trample it underfoot. The angel gave a plain
interpretation of these symbols : —
"The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the
kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king
of Grecia : and the great horn that is between his eyes is the
first king." Dan. 8:20, 21.
This vision was given about the year 538 B. c,
, and was written down oh the parchment scroll.
Two hundred years later Alexander of Macedonia,
"first king" of united Grecia,* was coming swiftly
* The congress of the confederacy met at Corinth to elect Alex-
ander general in his father's place. Alexander was chosen supreme
general of the Greeks for the invasion of Asia; and it was as head of
28
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Witness to Alexander
29
from- the west to smite the power of Persia to the
earth-. Already he had won the decisive victories
of the Granicus and the Issus; and Persia lay pros-
tfate. As the great conqueror approached Jerusa-
lem, he was determined to punish the city. It had
been slow to transfer its allegiance from Persia to
Grecia. But Josephus says that as Alexander drew
near the city, the gates were flung open, and a pro-
cession of priests and citizens moved out to meet the
great conqueror. The priests bore in their hands
the book of the prophet Daniel. The historian gives
a graphic description of the meeting: —
The procession was venerable, and the manner of it
different from that of other nations. It reached to a place
called Sapha; which name, translated into Greek, signifies a
prospect, for you have thence a prospect both of Jerusalem
and of the temple ; and when the Phenicians and the Chaldeans
that followed him [Alexander] thought they should have
liberty to plunder the city, and torment the high priest to
death, which the king's displeasure fairly promised them, the
very reverse of it happened.
For Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance,
in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine
linen, and the high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with
his miter on his head, having the golden plate whereon the
name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and
adored that name, and first saluted the high priest. The
Jews also did all together, with one voice, salute Alexander,
and encompass him about; whereupon the kings of Syria and
Hellas, descendant and successor of Achilles, rather than as Mace-
donian king, that he desired to go forth against Persia. . . . The
welcome ... and the vote, however perfunctory, which elected
him leader of the Greeks, were the fitting prelude to the expansion
of Hellas and the diffusion of Hellenic civilization, which destiny-
had chosen him to accomplish. He was thus formally recognized
as what he in fullest verity was, the representative of Greece.—
** History of Greece" J.B. Bury, Vol.11, page 330.
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30 The Hand of God in History
Ancient parchment rolls, or books
the rest were surprised at what Alexander had done, and sup-
posed him disordered in his mind.
However, Parmenio alone went up to him, and asked him
how it came to pass that, when all others adored him, he
should adore the high priest of the Jews? To whom he re-
plied, "I did not adore him, but that God who hath honored
him with his high-priesthood ; for I saw this very person in a
dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dios, in Macedonia,
who, when I was considering with myself how I might obtain
the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but
boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct
my army, and would give me the dominion over the Persians;
whence it is, that having seen no other in that habit, and now
seeing this person in it, and remembering that vision, and the
exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring
this army under the divine conduct, and shall therewith con-
quer Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that
all things will succeed according to what is in my own mind."
And when he had said this to Parmenio, and had given
the high priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him,
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Witness to Alexander
31
and he came into the city ; and when he went up to the temple,
he offered sacrifice to God, according to the high priest's
direction, and magnificently treated both the high priest
and the priests. And when the book of Daniel was shown
him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should
destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself
was the person intended; and as he was then glad, he dis-
missed the multitude for the present, but the next day he
called them to him, and bade them ask what favors they
pleased of him; whereupon the high priest desired that they
might enjoy the laws of their forefathers, and might pay no
tribute on the seventh year.— "Antiquities" book 11, chap. 8.
Alexander was familiar with the oracles of Greece,
and their enigmatical sayings, capable of double
interpretation. But here was no blind, oracular
utterance. The Hebrew prophet's words, which
he could see on the page before him, written two
centuries before, declared in plain language the
course of history. And what God had declared was
fulfilling before the eyes of men in that generation.
The conqueror of the world knew that the God of
heaven had borne witness to him in the high tide of
his career; and for the moment he bowed before the
Hying God.
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CHAPTER V
A Great Prophetic Measuring Line
The longest time prophecy of the Bible is the
twenty - three - hundred - y ear period (Dan. 8 : 14),
stretching from ancient times to the midst of the
nineteenth century, the opening days of our own
generation.
It is awe-inspiring to trace the great measuring
lines of prophecy through the ages, and to see the
exactness with which events, take place to meet the
specifications of the divine Word.
The Lord speaks. A thousand years, two thou-
sand, pass. Then, as the flight of time brings the
hour for the fulfilment, the event is brought forth.
It is the precision of Eternity, the working of him in
whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday
when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
In the third year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon,
the Lord gave to Daniel a vision of the great apostasy
that was to come in later times.
First he was shown that the kingdom of the Medes
and Persians would follow Babylon, and that Grecia
would come next upon the stage of world dominion.
Dan. 8: 20, 21. The views were like moving pictures
upon the screen, one power appearing, doing its work,
then giving place to the next.
Following Grecia, the prophet beheld the rise of a
32
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Prophetic Measuring Line
33
people of "fierce countenance, " stern soldiers, who
were to take possession of the " pleasant land," or
Palestine. It was Rome that followed Grecia, and
that annexed the Holy Land.
As Daniel watched the later history of Rome, he
saw apostasy developing, exalting itself, treading .
underfoot the people of God, and casting down the
truth of God, seemingly triumphant. The prophet's
heart must have cried out to know if this
power would forever prosper in its work ;
for next he heard the voice of a holy one
asking the question for him, —
" How long shall be the vision concerning
the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of
desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the
host to be trodden underfoot?" Verse 13.
The answer came back, 0 —
"Unto two thousand and three - hundred
days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. "
Vision of Verse 14.
Dan. 8:3-14 j n S y m bolic prophecy a day stands
for a year. Eze. 4:5, 6. , This two- thousand-three-
hundred-year period, we know, reaches to the latter
days; for the angel said further) "At the time of the
end shall be the vision.'' Dan. 8:17.
• The question was, " How long? " or, more literally,
"Until when?" And the answer was, "Unto two
thousand and three hundred years." Then what? —
"Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. " Then,
according to the burden of the prophecy, we may
look for God to begin to cut short the reign of that
apostasy, and finally to bring it to an end, The
.3
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34 The Hand of God in History
cleansing of the sanctuary is God's answer to this
lawless power. Apostasy may for a time exalt itself
against God, and tread underfoot the people and
the truth of God; but the just balances of the sanc-
tuary will yet pronounce judgment, and the apparent
prosperity of evil be cut short. " I was envious,' '
said the psalmist, "when I saw the prosperity of the
wicked." " Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then understood I their end." Ps. 73:3, 17.
What, then, is involved in the cleansing of the
sanctuary? The cleansing of the sanctuary, in the
typical service of the earthly tabernacle, was the
last phase of the ministry of the high priest. When
the time for this period in the Levitical ministry
came, on the last day of the yearly round of service,
the high priest entered the most holy place with the
sprinkled blood of c the sin-offering. All through the
year the people had been confessing their sins over
the sacrifice, and the blood of their offerings, bearing
their sins, had been ministered in the holy place, the
first apartment, before the second veil. But when
the time came for the last phase of priestly ministry,
the high priest entered the most holy place, and the
time bf cleansing the /sanctuary was come. Leviti-
cus 16.
Sins had been forgiven as the penitents br.ought
their offerings day by day. But all the record of the
year, was registered in the sanctuary by the sprinkled
blood of the offerings over which the sins had been
confessed.
Now, when the time of the cleansing of the sanc-
tuary from all this record came, in the last period of
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Prophetic Measuring Line 35
the ministry, — on that solemn " tenth day of the sev- r
enth month," — it was a miniature day of judgment
in Israel. The record was made up. Every man's
life came in solemn review that day. And whoso-
ever was not found right with God, as that service
was performed, was cut off from part with the Lord's
people: —
"For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in
that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people."
Lev. 23: 29.
All this was but an "example and shadow of
heavenly things" (Heb. 8: 5), a representation of the
ministry of our great High Priest, Jesus, in the true
sanctuary, the heavenly temple. The last phase of
Christ's ministry, then, before his second coming to
this earth, is a work of judgment, a review of the
heavenly record, corresponding to the ministry in the
second apartment of the earthly tabernacle in that
period of the Levitical service when the sanctuary was
cleansed.
Daniel the prophet was shown in vision this change
in the ministry of the heavenly temple, the true
sanctuary.. He saw the opening of the judgment
hour in heaven. The prophet describes the won-
drous scene, as God's living throne, with its wheels
of fire, moved into the most holy place of the heavenly
sanctuary for the closing work of Christ's ministry: —
"I beheld till the thrones were cast down ["placed,"
Revised Version], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose gar-
ment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure
wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as
burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from be-
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36 The Hand of God in History
fore him: thousand, thousands ministered unto him, and ten
thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment
was set, and the books were opened." Dan. 7: 9, 10. „
It is the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary
from the record of sin, and according to the teaching
of the type, whosoever, when that work closes, is not
found right with God, loses his part eternally with
the people of God. But our great High Priest has
made the promise, recorded in Rev. 3: 5, —
"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white
raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of
life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before
his angels."
The great prophetic period of Dan. 8: 14 was
given to let men on earth know when this hour of
investigative judgment began in heaven.- "How
long?" was the question asked in the vision. How
long was apostasy apparently to triumph, and trample
underfoot the truth of God? The answer was, 11 Unto
two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the
sanctuary be cleansed." Then should the final work
begin in heaven that is to cut short the reign of sin.
And then, on earth, also, should the standard of
truth be especially lifted up against apostasy. For
in the Revelation, the prophet John was shown that
when this hour of investigative judgment began in
heaven, a message was to be carried to all peoples and
nations, proclaiming the -hour of God's judgment
come, warning men against following the doctrines
and ways of the great apostasy, and calling all to the
divine standard of "the commandments of God, and
the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14: 6-14.
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Prophetic Measuring Line
37
The great prophetic measuring line — the two
thousand three hundred years — reaches, then, to a
most solemn and important time in the development
of the plan of salvation.
When does that period begin, and when does it
end? It is necessary to understand this in order to
get the answer to the question, "How long shall be
the vision?'' It must reach* to the latter days; for
we recall the angel's, words, "At the time of the end
shall be the vision."
But what marks the beginning of this great pro-
phetic period? and may we understand definitely
• when the hour of the investigate judgment, the cleans-
ing of the sanctuary, begins in heaven?
The angel Gabriel received the commission,
"Make this man to understand the vision." Dan.
8: 16. Then if we follow the angel's "explanation,
we also may understand the vision.
The angel explained clearly the outline 'of coming
events, — the succession of Medo- Persia, followed by
^Greece, and the rise of the fourth great empire, Rome;
and then the development and deceptive workings
of the great apostasy that was to come. Verses 20-26. -
But the angel ■ stopped short of explaining the
matter of the time, the beginning and ending of the
prophetic period. He only said that the vision of
the two thousand three hundred days was true, and
that it should be " for many days. ' ' Verse 26, ,, There
he stopped, for Daniel fainted. The prophet had
been shown a view of the working of apostasy in later
times that took all his strength from him. And as he
closes his report of this vision, in the last verse of this
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The Hand of God in History
eighth chapter, he says, "I was astonished at the vis-
ion, but none understood it."
Yet Gabriel had been commanded to "make this
man to understand the vision/ 9 And very soon after
— very -evidently within a year, possibly within a
few months, or even weeks* — the angel Gabriel came
* Formerly it was supposed that fifteen years intervened between
the vision of the eighth chapter and the explanation in the ninth.
The marginal dates in the King James Version so represent it, follow- -
ing the best information available until more recent years.
Inasmuch as no trace was found in secular history of this King,
Belshazzar, it was concluded by Bible students that the Belshazzar
of Daniel must have been the Nabonadius of Greek and Persian
history, the last king of Babylon. This Nabonadius assumed the
throne in B. c. 555* and reigned seventeen years; And as Belshazzar
was assumed to be only another name used by Daniel for the same
king, "the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar " (Dan. 8: i)
was placed in 553, fifteen years before the fall of Babylon. This
satisfied friends of the Bible story. But all along unfriendly critics^
discounted the book of Daniel for bringing in the name of Belshazzar,
a character unknown to secular history. • '
About the beginning of this last generation, when light from the
prophetic word was to shine forth, books of clay were unearthed
from old Chaldea that had been buried under the sands of over two
millenniums. And lo, the very stones spoke out in confirmation of
the words of Inspiration. The books of clay told- what the Greek
and Persian historians had failed to tell ■ — of a Belshazzar who was
not Nabonadius at all, but the son of Nabonadius, associated with*
his father as king in the last years of Babylon.
Rawlinson, in his "Ancient Monarchies," tells of this kingly
association of Belshazzar with his father, and in a foot-note adds: —
"The proof of this association is contained in the cylinders of
Nabonadius, found at Mugheir, where the protection of the gods is
asked for Nabu-nadid and his son Bel-shar-uzur, who are coupled
together in a way that implies the cosovereignty of the latter.
('British Museum Series/ Vol. I, PI. 68, No. 1.) The date of the
association was, at the latest, b. c. 540, Nabonadius's fifteenth year,
since the third year of Belshazzar is mentioned in Daniel (8: 1)."—
" Fourth Monarchy," chapter 8.
Here is one of the various inscriptions telling of Belshazzar: —
"Myself, Nabo-nid, king of, Babylon, -
in the fear of thy great divinity
. preserve me.
My life unto distant days
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Prophetic Measuring Line
39
again to Daniel and said: 11 0 Daniel, I am now come
forth to give thee skill and understanding. . . .
Therefore understand the matter, and consider the
vision." Dan. 9:22, 23. And at once the angel
began to explain the time prophecy, which had been
left unexplained when Daniel fainted.
First of all, he said, a shorter period was to be
" determined," or cut off ,— cut off from the longer
period which the angel had c'ome to explain, — this
shorter period to reach to the days of the Messiah and
to the time when Jerusalem 'should fill up its cup of
transgression : —
"Seventy weeks [49b days prophetic time, 490 literal
years] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in ever-
lasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the most holy." Verse 24..
Wherever^ then, this period of seventy weeks, or
490 years, begins, there also must begin the longer
period of 2300 years; and the angel now foretold the
event that was to fix the date of the starting-point.
abundantly prolong, ~
and of Bel-sar-ussur, - . .
my eldest son,
the offspring of my body,
the awe of thy great divinity
fix thou firmly in his heart,
that he may never fall
into sin ,
and that his glory may endure." — "Records of the Past," Old Series
Vol. II, page 148.
The third year of Belshazzar was near the fall of Babylon,
probably his last year; in which case the "first year of Darius" and
the explanation of the vision would follow within the year. The
exact time intervening, however, is immaterial.
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The Hand of God in History
"Know therefore and understand," he said to
Daniel, thus fulfilling the divine charge given him to
"make this man to understand" the vision of the
2300 years, —
"know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of
the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the
Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and
two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even
in' troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall
Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the
prince that shall come shall destroy the. city." Verses 25, 26.
From the time of the going forth of the command-
ment to restore and build Jerusalem, then, these pro-
phetic periods begin' — the 490 years to reach to the
days and work of the Messiah, at the first advent, and
the 2300 years to extend to the beginning of his closing
work in the heavenly sanctuary, preparatory to his
second advent in power and glory. It therefore be-
comes a matter of deepest interest and of eternal im-
portance to ascertain when this commandment to
restore and build Jerusalem went forth.
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CHAPTER VI
Beginning of the Great Prophetic Period
"From the going forth of the commandment to
restore and to build Jerusalem." Dan. 9:25.
This was to be the starting-point of the long pro-
phetic measuring f) line of the 70 weeks (or 490 years)
and of the 2300 years. Events of such eternal im-
port to every soul are marked out by the time proph-
ecies depending upon this date, that what other-
wise might seem a tedious review of facts and figures
becomes a study of deepest interest. Once the start-
ing-point is fixed, the events foretold must be seen
following one another, scheduled exactly to the great
time-table of divine prophecy.
There were successive decrees concerning Jeru-
salem, issued by Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes
Longimanus. Which one does the scripture contem-
plate as "the commandment"? The decree of Ar-
taxerxes to Ezra (Ezra 7) is the one we would naturally
look upon as the most comprehensive; for it author-
ized Ezra to restore the full ecclesiastical and civil
administration of Jerusalem and Judah. And the
scripture clearly indicates this as "the commandment
to restore and. to build."
In a single passage, Inspiration notes the decrees
of Cyrus and Darius, and sums up both with this
decree of Artaxerxes to Ezra, as constituting "the
commandment;" — -
41
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The Hand of God in History
"And they builded, and finished it [the temple], according
to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to
the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king
of Persia.' ' Ezra 6: 14.
Thus it is spoken of as one threefold command-
ment, completed in the sweeping and inclusive com-
mission to Ezra. Here, then, was the 11 going forth
of the commandment to restore and to build.' * And
this decree to Ezra was put into execution in the
seventh year of Artaxerxes. Ezra 7: 7-9. The
seventh year of Artaxerxes was the year 457 b. c, as
must now be shown.
This date of the seventh year — so important to
ascertain - — is fixed by the combined record of sacred
and profane history with uncommon accuracy.
One witness is the canon of Ptolemy, the great
authority on the chronology of ancient kings. Clau-
dius Ptolemy, mathematician, astronomer, and geog-
rapher, dwelt in Alexandria, Egypt. He was born
in the first century of our. era, and died about the year
151 A. d. Alexandria was the great educational
center, the home of wonderful library collections.
From the records of ancient times Ptolemy compiled
a chronological list of the kings of the great universal
empires.
Thus his list of kings is a . canon (rule, or standard)
of ancient chronology, of the greatest value. He be-
gan with Nabonassar, of the Assyro-Babylonian line,
747 B. c, and continued the list of successors to the
fall of Babylon; then followed the list of Persian,
Grecian, and Roman kings, to the second century after
Christ, when Ptolemy died and bis record ceased
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Beginning of the 2300 Years
43
That line of kings in Ptolemy's list — Babylon,
Persia, Greece, Rome — is a striking comment, as
a number of writers remark, on Nebuchadnezzar's
dream of the great metallic image, representing the'
four universal kingdoms - — Babylon, Persia, Greece,
Rome. Divine prophecy foretold the order of em-
pire before the events transpired; the historian re-
corded them after they had taken place. When Ptol-
emy, in his.quarters in the temple of Serapis, made up
his list of empires and their kingly line, in the second
century of our era, he unconsciously bore witness to
the fulfilment of the prophecy uttered by Daniel, in
Babylon, in the sixth century before Christ, when the
prophet said to the king, " There is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king
Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days."
Dan. 2: 28.
Along with his list of kings, Ptolemy compiled also
a record of ancient astronomical observations, "called
the " Almagest" (an Arabic word meaning "great
composition"). This "contains most of what is
known of the astronomical observations and theories
of the ancients." — Webster's Dictionary, "Almagest"
When it is recorded that in such and such a year of a
certain king, at such a place, an eclipse of the sun or
moon occurred, the modern astronomer and mathe-
matician can verify the chronological record. And
again and again these dates have been worked out
and proved accurate.
Thus the canon and the "Almagest" go to-
gether. Dr. Wm. Hales, the chronologist, said of the
cation: —
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The Hand vf God in History
From its great use as an astronomical era, confirmed by
unerring characters of eclipses, this canon justly obtained the
highest authority among historians also. It has most de-
servedly been esteemed an invaluable treasure, . . .-and of
the greatest use in chronology, without which, as Marsham
observes, there could scarcely be any transition from sacred
to profane history. — "Chronology Vol. /, page 280.
So we thank God for the work of Ptolemy, as a
help in tracing the fulfilling word of prophecy. Speak-
ing of the providences of God in the preservation of
historical records, the late Dr. H. Grattan Guinness,
of London, wrote of Ptolemy's work as follows: —
In the existence of this invaluable work, and in its preser-
vation as a precious remnant of antiquity, the hand of Provi-
dence can clearly be traced. The same divine care which
raised up Herodotus and other Greek historians to carry on
the records of the past from the point to which they had been
brought by the writings of the prophets at the close of the
Babylonish captivity, — the Providence which raised up
Josephus, the Jewish historian, at the. termination of the
New Testament history, to record the •fulfilment of prophecy
in the destruction of Jerusalem, — raised up also Ptolemy in
the important interval which extended from Titus to Hadrian,
that of the completion of the Jewish desolation, to record the
chronology of the previous nine centuries, and to associate it in
such a way with the revolutions of the solar system as to per-
mit of the most searching demonstration of its truth. — " Crea-
tion Centered in Christ, 3 ' Vol. I, page 2Q2.
Now, what is the testimony of the canon to the
seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when the
decree to Ezra went forth? Ptolemy, of course, knew
nothing of the Christian era and the reckoning of years
before Christ and after Christ. He began with the
era of Nabonassar. Of the origin of this system, Dr.
Hales says: — • -
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Beginning of the 2joo Years
45
Nabonassar [king of Chaldea], having collected the acts
of his predecessors, destroyed them, in Order that the com-
putation of the reigns of the Chaldean kings might be made
from himself. It began, therefore, with the reign of Nab-
onassar, Feb. 26, b; C. 747. — "Chronology," Vol. I, page. 268.
That day was the Egyptian Thoth, or New-year. -
It begins the year one of Ptolemy's Canon, which
thenceforward numbers off the years, one, two, three,
etc., straight on through history, telling in what year
of Nabonassar's era each king* began to reign, always
counting full years from New-year to New-year. The
canon does not deal with parts of years. It is like a
rigid measuring rule, just three hundred sixty-five ■
7 days long, laid down over history, marking the years
and numbering them from that first New-year.
Knowing the starting-point, Feb. 26, 747 B. c, it 'is
but a matter of computation, or measuring, to tell
in what year of our modern reckoning a given year of
the canon falls. .
According to Ptolemy, the year in which Artax-
erxes began to reign was the two hundred eighty-
fourth year of the canon. This year 284, according
to our calendar, began Dec. 17, 465 B. c*
But according to the rule of Ptolemy, this means
only that somewhere between Dec. 17, 465, and Dec.
17, 464, the king came ^0 the throne. At whatever
. time in the year a king came to the throne, his reign
was counted from the New-year preceding. To
illustrate : If we were following that plan now of record-
*As the exact'365-day year of the Egyptians made no allowance
for leap-year, the Egyptian Thoth, or New-year, drops back in
our calendar about a day every four years. So that, while it fell
on February 26, in 747 B. c, where the years of the canon begin,
in this two hundred eighty-fourth year of the canon it falls on Dec.
17. 465- - - %
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4 6
The Hand of God in History
ing the reigns of kings, — by years only, not counting
parts of years — and a king should come to the throne
in July, 1913
Years of*
Canon
; 416
NOV. 14
417
NOV. 14
418
B.C.
332
the year of his accession would be set
down as begin-
ning with the
New-year, Jan.
1, 1913, for in
the year then
< In Canon opening he be-
gan to reign.
That was Ptol-
emy's method.
Actual Time Dn HaIes states
<0CT. 1 the rule: —
Each king's
33]
reign begins at the
330 Thoth, or New-
Fig. I Alexanders Succession ^It^td
all the odd months
of his last year are included in the first year of his successor.
— " Chronology " Vol. I y page 285.
He cites the following proofs of the rule (which we
will illustrate by diagrams) : —
Thus, the actual accession of Alexander the Great was at
the decisive victory of Arbela, Oct. 1, B. c. 331 ; but his reign
in the canon began the preceding New-year's day of the same
current Nabonassean year,. Nov. 14, b. c. 332. [See Fig. 1.]*
The death of Alexander the Great was in the 1 14th Olym-
piad, according to Josephus, May 22, B. c. 323; but the era o*f
his successor, Philip Arrhidaeus, began in the canon the pre-
ceding New-year's day, Nov. 12, B. c. 324. [See Fig. 2.]
Tiberius died March 16, A. D. 37, but the reign of his
successor, Caius Caligula, began in the canon from the pre-
ceding New-year's day, Aug. 14, a. d. 36. [See Fig. 3.]
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Beginning of the 2300 Years
47
Therefore, inasmuch as the canon shows only that
Artaxerxes began his reign sometime in the Nabonas-
sean year beginning Dec. 17, 465 B. c, and ending
Dec. 17,464, the ~ t
Years of
Canon
424
NOV. 12
324
< In Canon
425
NOV 12
323
Actual Time
< may 23
question is, At
what time of the
year did he come
to the throne?
With this an-
swered, we can
readily deter-
mine t h e sev-
enth year of Ar-
taxerxes, as the
scripture would
reckon it from
the time when
he actually be-
gan to reign.
And here Inspiration itself gives the answer.
The record of Nehemiah and Ezra fully establishes
the fact that Artaxerxes began his reign at the end of
the summer, or in the autumn. Neh. 1:1; 2:1;
Ezra 7: 7-9.* His first year, therefore, was from the
426
32Z
Fig. 2 A ridaeus's Succession
*.The texts prove that the king came to the throne after mid-
summer, toward or fully in the autumn, so that the actual years of
his reign would run from autumn to autumn. Neh. 1:1 begins the
record: "In the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year." Neh. 2: 1
continues: "It came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth
year of Artaxerxes." Thus it is plain that in the actual year of the
king's reign the month Chisleu came first in order, and then Nisan.
Chisleu was the ninth month of the Jewish sacred year (Zech. 7:1).
The year began in the spring. In our calendar Chisleu is, roughly,
December, or, strictly, from the latter part of November to the latter
part of December. Nisan is the first month, April. And these
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4 8
The Hand of God in History
< In Canon
Actual Time
<Mar. le
autumn of 464 b. c. to the autumn of 463 b. g. (Fig.
4), and his seventh year was from the autumn of 458
b. c. to the autumn of 457 B. c. (Fig. 6, page 50).
Under Ezra's commission the pe 0 ple began to go up
to Jerusalem in
the spring of
that year, 457
B. C. (in the first
month, or
April), and they
"came to Jeru-
salem in the fifth
month" (Au-
gust). Ezra 7
8, 9. Ezra and
h i s associates
soon thereafter
"delivered the
king's commis-
sions unto the
king's lieutenants, and to the governors on this side
the river: and they furthered the people, and the
house of God." Ezra 8:36.
With this delivery of the commissions to the king's
officers, the commandment to restore and to build had
fully gone forth. And from this date, 457 B. c,
months — November (latter part) , December, April — in the order
named; by the prophet, came in the first year of the king, of course,
the same as in his twentieth year. And in the same year also came
the fifth month, August; for Ezra 7: 7-9 shows that the first and
fifth months also fell in tfoe same year of his reign. Then we know
of a certainty that his reign began somewhere between August and
the latter part of November. A diagram of the' months of the Jew-
ish year will illustrate the lesson of the texts. (Fig. 5, page 51.)
Years of
Canon
783
36
AUG. 14-
784
37
AUG 14
'785
38
fig. 3 Caligula's Succession
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Beginning of the 2joo Years
49
< In Canon
Actual. Time
extends the 70 weeks, or 490 years, allotted . to the
Jewish people. "Seventy weeks are determined [cut
off] upon thy . people and upon thy holy city . . .
from the going forth of the commandment to restore
and to build Je-
rusalem." Dan.
9: 24, 25.
This 4 90 -
year period,
measuring from
457 b. c. to A. D.
34, touches at^
its close the
years of the
public ministry
and crucifixion
of Christ, and
the turning of
the apostles to p-jg 4 Artaxerxes's Succession
the Gentiles. 0
At the same date, 457 b. c, necessarily began the
longer period of 230Q years, from which the- shorter
period was " determined,' ' or cut off. And this long
prophetic period was to reach to " the time of the end,"
to "the cleansing of the sanctuary," the beginning of
the closing ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctu-
ary, preparatory to his second coming in glory/
The exact time of Christ's second coming is not
revealed in the Scriptures. "Of that day and hour
knoweth no man," said Jesus, "no, not the angels of
heaven, but my Father only." Matt. 24:36. All
attempts, therefore, to set a date for the second advent
4
Years of j
Canon J
B.C.
O Q 1 !
coo. <.]
A C K
DEC. 17 !
284 |
464
__D_E_C_ V7 _ J_
285 i
463
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50
The Hand of God in History
B.C. 465
464
AUTUMN
463
I £ YEAR
462
461
3*5
460
t 4^
459
458
457
7 "
are vain, and contrary to the words of Christ him-
self. This prophetic period of 2300 years reaches
to the last date set in time prophecy, the year 1844.
As the ministry of the
1 1 cleansing of . the sanctuary ' '
in the Levitical type continued
but a brief period at the close
of the yearly round of service,
even so we may know that the
time of the "cleansing" of the
heavenly sanctuary will not
continue long. The prophecy
was given in order that we in
this generation of the judgment-
hour might know that the end
is near and the Saviour "even
at the door."
The Lord does not leave
his children in ignorance of the
times and the seasons. " Ye,
brethren, are not in darkness,
that that day should overtake you as a thief. . . .
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others ; but let us
watch and be sober." 1 Thess. 5 : 4-6. These proph-
ecies, written in ancient times, were set down in Holy
Writ especially for this last generation, in which
we live.
The prophetic periods of this prophecy are a
part of those things "spoken of by Daniel the
prophet," concerning whose writings, as the time
of fulfilment should come, Jesus said: " Whoso read-
eth, let him understand." Matt. 24: 15.
456
8*
etc.
Fig.6 Showing 7® of
Artaxer\es
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Beginning of the 2joo Years - 51
That year 457 B. c, therefore, is a date of' pro-
found importance. It stands like the golden mile-
stone by the ancient arch of Severus at Rome, from
which ran out all the measurements of distance to
the ends of the empire. From this date, 457 B. c,
run out the golden threads of time prophecy that touch
the events in the earthly life and the heavenly min-
istry of Jesus that are of deepest eternal interest to all
mankind to-day.
Fig. 5 Showing time of year
of ArfaxerxessAccession
(See foot-note, pages 47, 48)
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CHAPTER VII
Witness of Astronomy to History and Prophecy
The combined testimony of Scripture and the
canon of Ptolemy to the years of Artaxerxes is clear.
Of the assurance that the canon has been correctly
copied and preserved, Hales says: —
As to the authenticity of these copies of the canon, the
strongest testimony is given by their exact agreement through-
out with above twenty dates and computations of eclipses in
Ptolemy's "Almagest." — 11 Chronology," Vol. I, page 450.
Thus the accuracy of the astronomical record
witnesses to the historic. An English writer on
chronology, Jas. B. Lindsay, said long ago of Ptolemy's
Canon and "Almagest:" —
The astronomic and historic can not be separated, and
they must both stand or fall together. The. astronomic can
be rigidly verified . — ' ' Chrono-A strolabe, ' ' London, 1858.
And he adds: "A foundation is laid for chronology
sure as the stars."
Take one illustration. Ptolemy's "Almagest"
preserves the record of an eclipse of the moon observed
at Babylon on the night of the seventeenth of the
month Phamenoth, in the seventh year of Cambyses,
king of Persia. According to the canon, it was on the
night following July 16, b. c. 523. The modem
astronomer works away with pencil and paper, and
tells us that on that very night an eclipse must have
v 52
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Witness of Astronomy
53
been observable in Babylon. It is a fascinating topic.
Speaking of the accuracy with which dates of eclipses
may be verified, an American writer, Sylvester Bliss,
quotes from Professor Mitchell the following para-
graph: — - .
Go back three thousand years, stand upon that mighty
watch-tower, tri3 temple of Belus, in old Babylon, and look
out. The sun is sinking in eclipse, and great is the dismay of •
the terror-stricken inhabitants. We have the fact and cir-
cumstances recorded. But how shall we prove that the record
is correct? The astronomer unravels the devious movements
of the sun, the earth, and the moon, through the whole period
of three thousand years; with the power of intellect, -he goes
backward through the cycles of thirty long centuries, and an-
nounces that at such an hour, on such a day — as the Chal-
dean has written — ■ that eclipse did take place. — "Sacred
Chronology, 11 chap. 8. , ?
The infinite precision of the movements of the
heavenly bodies bears testimony to history that means
much to the student of prophecy. "The heavens
declare the glory of God" not only in their shining
testimony to his creative and sustaining power, but in
the witness they bear to his fulfilling word. How
infinite the wisdom and the power of God !
"O thou eternal One, whose presence bright
All space doth occupy, all motion guide !
"A million torches lighted by thy hand
Wander unwearied through the blue abyss.
" Thy chains' the unmeasured universe surround,
Upheld by thee, by thee inspired with breath!"
A divine hand moves the clock of the universe.
There is no slipping of the wheels, no weakening of
the springs of motion, This earth of ours completes
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54
The Hand of God in History
"its spiral journey round the sun"— six hundred
million miles every year, the astronomers tell us —
in exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46
seconds. Never a second is lost. The Lord bring-
eth out the host of heaven by number, "he calleth
them all by names by the greatness of his might, for
that he is strong in power; not one faileth." Isa.
40 : 26.
And this is the God who says: "I am God, and
there is none like me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that
are not yet done. ,, Isa. 46: 9, 10. And "this God is
our God forever and ever : he will be our guide even
unto death." Ps. 48: 14.
In one of the trying hours of the Reformation,
when the way was" dark and the cause of reform seemed
ready to perish, Luther went out under the starry sky
and read in it the message of courage: "He who holds
up all that, can hold up all this."
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CHAPTER VIII
The Greek Olympiads and the Date B. C. 457
The Greek love of athletics led to ^he establish-
ment of an era of chronology that bears witness in con-
firmation of the year 457 B. c. as the seventh of Artax-
erxes, when the decree to Ezra went forth.
Beginning with July, 776 B. c., the Olympic games
were celebrated every four years. The period from
one contest to the next was counted an Olympiad.
Bliss says : —
. An Olympiad is a cycle of four years, and the years are
reckoned as the first; second, third, or fourth year of any given
Olympiad. The Olympic games consisted of various athletic
sports, a record of which was kept at Elis, and the names of
the victors inserted in it by the presidents of the games.
These registers are pronounced accurate by ancient historians,
and are complete, with the exception of the two-hundred-
eleventh Olympiad, "the only one," says Pausanias," omitted
in the register of the Eleans." — "Sacred Chronology page 2j,
This register, running through the centuries,
afforded Greek writers a chronological system for
recording dates of events. An event was said to have
occurred in such a year of a certain Olympiad. And
the year might be further designated by the name of
the arch on (chief magistrate) of Athens who occu-
pied office during that year.
At various points the Greek history touches the
Persian in a way to give us dates in Persian history.
55
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56
The Hand of God in History
Xerxes the Great, of Persia, father of Artaxerxes,
had failed in his mighty effort to subdue Greece.
His great campaign had been predicted in prophecy.
The angel said to Daniel, in the days of Darius, ruler
in Babylon, when Cyrus was king of Persia: —
"Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia;
and the fourth shall be far richer than 'they all: and by his
strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm
of Grecia." Dan. 11:2.
Xerxes was this fourth king. The order was, (1)
Cambyses, (2) Smerdis, (3) Darius Hystaspes, (4)
Xerxes. And Xerxes did "stir up all against the
realm of Grecia." His was the mightiest army, no
doubt, that has ever yet marched on earth. But he
met defeat. The decisive blow was struck by the
Greeks in the famous naval battle of Salamis,- where
Xerxes, from a lofty throne on shore, saw three hun-
dred eighty Greek ships break in pieces his own ,
fleet of oyer seven hundred. The king fled across the
Hellespont into Asia, and never again did a Persian
army set foot in Europe, The time of Grecia was
near at hand.
This campaign of Xerxes made his life and death
a subject of Greek history. So he is not only listed
in the canon of Ptolemy, but in the record by the
Olmypiads. Diodorus, a Greek historian who lived
in the first century before Christ, has a reputation for
inaccuracy as to dates (see Holm's "History of
Greece/' Vol. II, page 102), but he gives very definite
testimony to the death of Xerxes. He found it re-
corded in the Greek history under the archonship
of ,Lysitheus. Lysitheus was the archon, or magis-
trate, of Athens in the fourth year of the seventy-
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THe Olympiads
57
eighth Olympiad, which began July, 465 B. c. (See
Clinton's " Fasti Hellenica," page 42). . William Wat-,
kiss Lloyd, an English writer on Greek history,
says : —
The date of the death of Xerxes is one of the most happily
certified points in the chronology of these times, and supplies
a limit for the dates of several events in Greek history proper.
Diodorus assigns it to the archonship of Lysitheus (July, 465
b. c, to July, 464 b. a). — " The Age of Pericles" Vol. /, page
Somewhere between those two dates, according to
the record by Olympiads, Artabanus, captain of the
guard, had Xerxes assassinated. Artabanus ruled
seven months (this time being counted with the years
of Xerxes in the chronology), and then came Artax-
erxes to the throne, in 464 B. c. This agrees entirely
with the record of Ptolemy's Canon, and makes the
seventh year of Artaxerxes 457 B. c.
Sir Isaac Newton, the great mathematician and
scientist, made an analysis of Greek and other records
bearing witness to 457 B. c. as the seventh year of Ar-
taxerxes. For the famous discoverer of the law of
gravitation was an earnest student of prophecy and
of that greatest of all sciences — the science of sal-
vation. In his work on the " Prophecies of. Daniel,"
he gives various independent lines of proof for the
date 457 b. c, as the seventh year of Artaxerxes,
whence the prophetic period was to be reckoned.
Reference to three of these lines of evidence must
suffice: —
1. Newton shows that soon after an anniversary
of his accession, Xerxes began to march his army over
the Hellespont into Europe, "in the end of the fourth
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The Hand of God in History
year of the seventy-fourth Olympiad/' which ended
in June, 480 b. c. Newton continues: —
In the autumn, three months after, on the full moon, the
sixteenth day of the month of Munychion^ was the battle of
Salamis, and a little after that an eclipse of the sun, which, by
the calculation, fell on October 2. His [Xerxes'] sixth year,
therefore, began a little before June, suppose in spring, An.
J. P. [Julian period] 4234 (b. c. 480), and his first year con-
sequently in spring, An. J. P. 4229 (b. c. 485), as above.
Now he reigned almost twenty-one years, by the consent of
all writers. Add the seven months of Artabanus, and the
sum will be twenty-one years and about four or five months,
which end between midsummer and autumn, An. J. P. 4250
(b. c. 464). And at this time, therefore, began the reign
of his successor, Artaxerxes, as was to be proved. — Part 1,
chap, 10.
2. Again, Newton takes the writings of Afri-
canus, a Christian of the third century: —
The same thing is also confirmed by Julius Africanus,
who informs us out of former writers that the twentieth year
of Artaxerxes was the one hundred fifteenth year from the
beginning of the reign of Cyrus in Persia, and fell in with An.
4, Olympiad 83 [the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad].
It began, therefore, with the Olympic year soon after the
summer solstice, An. J. P. 4269 (b. c. 445). Subduct nine-
teen years, and his first year will begin at the same time of
the year An. J. P. 4250 (b. c. 464), as above. — ■ Id.
3, Another of Newton's arguments in proof of the
date, the last that we have space to refer to, is based
on testimony as to the death of Artaxerxes. It will
be more easily followed if we quote more fully than
$ir Isaac Newton does from the original authority
cited ; and indeed the story is an interesting one apart
from its contribution to chronology. It is from the
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The Olympiads
59
" History of the Peloponnesian War," — really a con-
test between Sparta and Athens, — written by Thu-
cydides. Writing of the winter season of 425-424
B. c, he says: —
During the ensuing winter, Aristides, son of Archippus,
one of the commanders of the Athenian vessels which collected
tribute from the allies, captured at Eion, upon the [river]
Strymon, Artaphernes, a Persian, who was on his way from
the king [Artaxerxes] to Sparta. He was brought to Athens,
and the Athenians had the despatches which he was carrying,
and which were written in the Assyrian character, translated.
. . . The chief point was a remonstrance addressed to the
Lacedaemonians by the king, who said that he could not
understand what they wanted. ... If they meant to make
themselves intelligible, he desired them to send to him another
embassy with the Persian envoy. Shortly afterward the
Athenians sent Artaphernes in a trireme [galley] to Ephesus,
and with him an embassy of their own; but they found that
' Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, had recently died ; for the
embassy arrived just at that time.— Book 2, par. 50; Jowett's
Translation, page 278.
As all this happened "during the winter," it is
evident that the, envoys from Greece on the way to
- Artaxerxes* court in Persia, and the embassy from
Persia announcing the king's death, met in Ephesus
(in Asia Minor) in the early months of 424 b. c; and
that the death of Artaxerxes must have occurred to-
ward the end of 425 b. c. Sir Isaac Newton shows
that his precise reign was thirty-nine years and three
months. Counting this time back from the end of
425 b. c, the beginning of his reign comes in the latter
half of 464 b. c, just as we have seen by other wit-
nesses, and the seventh year of his reign would be
457 B.C.
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60 The Hand of God in History
This is but a rough calculation, based on an esti-
mate of the reasonable time elapsing in the journey-
ing of the embassies. It is related to the exact
chronology of Ptolemy's Canon only as the "'log"
reckoning of a ship is related to the sure observation
by the sun or stars in determining the ship's position.
But it is interesting as showing how fragmentary de-
tails of chronological history join in confirming an
important date in prophecy.
The testimony of the Olympiads agrees with that
of Ptolemy's Canon in fixing the year period within
which Artaxerxes began to reign. And just where the
testimony of history is uncertain — as to the season
of the year — the voice, of Inspiration speaks.
The year in. which the great commission was
granted to Ezra to restore and build Jerusalem was
457 B.C.
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CHAPTER IX
" Unto Messiah the Prince "
" Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and
upon thy holy city. . . . Know therefore and understand,
that from the going, forth of the commandment to restore and
to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince shall be seven
weeks, and threescore and two weeks. V Dan. 9: 24, 25
The plain statement of the angel that the seventy
weeks extend to the time of the Messiah, shows at once
that a day in the prophecy must be used as a symbol
for a year (as in Eze. 4:6; Num. 14: 34).
Seventy weeks were allotted to the Jewish people,
arid sixty-riirie of these weeks — 483 years of the 490
— were to extend from the going forth of the com-
mandment to restore Jerusalem "unto Messiarr the
prince." One more* week — : seven years — would
yet remain of the severity; and "in the midst" of that
closing, week of years, the Messiah was to cause the
sacrifices to cease. There the great sacrifice was to
be made.
- First, we consider the 483 years which were to
reach to the Messiah. The manifestation of the Mes-
siah — which means the Anointed — was at Christ's
baptism by John, when he was anointed of the Holy
Ghost to his earthly ministry: —
"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway
out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him,
"arid "he -saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and
61
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62
The Hand of God in History
lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Matt. 3:
16, 17. "John . . . saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world." John 1 : 29.
This was the event to which the 483 -year period
had pointed for centuries.
Now, 483 full years from 457 B. c. reach to A. d.
27. What is the historical evidence as to the time
of Christ's baptism?
The key to the solution of this (question is found
in Luke's Gospel : —
" Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, . . . the word of
God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
And he came unto all the country about Jordan, preaching
the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Luke
3:i-3.
It was (1) the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and (2)
Pilate was governor.
1. The fifteenth year of Tiberias Ccesar. The death
of Augustus was in a. d. 14. But Tiberius was as-
sociated with him as colleague shortly before Augus-
tus's death. Some modern histories give the time of
this appointment as probably a. d. 13; others say
A. D. 12. Dion Cassius (Roman senator, born in
the second century) wrote a great/' History of Rome,"
most of which is lost. But in the history of the events
of A. D. 12, he says: —
Augustus, because he was growing old, wrote a letter
commending Germanicus to the senate, and the latter to
Tiberius. — Book $6, chap. 26, translation by Herbert Baldwin
Foster..
The less is commended to the greater — German-
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Unto the Messiah
63
icus to the senate, but the senate to Tiberius, in-
dicating that in A. d. 12 Tiberius was recognized as
having the imperial dignity. It was doubtless to-
ward the latter part of the year that the investment
of Tiberius with the imperial dignity took place, as
the events seem to some to crowd it even into A. D. 13.
Again, in a foot-note in his "History of the Chris-
tian Church, " Dr. Philip Schaff says: —
There are coins from Antioch, in Syria, of the date A. u.
765 [a. d. 12], with the head of Tiberius, and the inscription,
Kaisar. Sebastos (Augustus). — Vol. /, page 120.
. And as the first year of Tiberius would be from
the latter part of A. d. 12 to a. d. 13, the fifteenth year
would be from A. D. 26 to the latter part of A. d. 27.
2. " Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea. 11 Was
Pilate governor in A. D.' 27? Josephus says that
Pilate so exasperated the Jews that at last Vitellius,
president of Syria, took action to remove him: —
So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care
of the affairs of Judea, and ordered Pilate to go to Rome,
to answer before the emperor to the accusation of the Jews.
So Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, made haste
to Rome, and this in obedience to the orders of Vitellius,
which he durst not contradict; but before he could get to
Rome, Tiberius was dead.— "Antiquities " book 8, chap. 14
Tiberius died March 16, A. D. 37, while Pilate was
"making haste' ' to Rome to save his position, and
possibly his life. Pilate, then, must have left Jeru-
salem, early in A. D. 37, or in the end of A. D. 36. But
he left after " ten years in Judea." Ten years reck-
oned back from the end of A. D. 36, would bring the
first year of his governorship from the end of A. D. 26
to the end of A. D. 27.
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The Hand of God in History
The time prophecy of Daniel 9 declared that 483
years from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and build Jerusalem, the Messiah, the
Anointed, would appear. That index-finger of di-
vine prophecy pointed through all the centuries to
the date a. d. 27.
When that year of the prophecy came, "in the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius
Diagram of the 2300 Years
The 2300 years commence with the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem, b. c. 457
and reach to a.d. 1844, when the 11 cleansing " of the sanctuary, the "hour of God's
judgment." began in the heavenly temple. The seventy weeks (490 years), cut off
for the Jews, end in a. d. 34, when the apostles turned to the Gentiles. The sixty-
nine weeks (483 years) to reach to the Messiah — the "Anointed" — end in a. d. 27,
the year in which Jesus was anointed at his baptism and publicly proclaimed as the
Messiah, the Lamb of God.
Pilate being governor of Judea, . . , the word of God
came unto John," who bore witness, '"Behold- the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the
world."
"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus
came into Galilee, preaching the gospel "of the king-
dom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of. God is at hand: repent ye, and believe
the gospel." Mark 1 : 14, 15. V
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Unto the Messiah
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The word that came to John in the wilderness of
Judea was the word of the same living God whose
angel had uttered the time prophecy to Daniel over
half a millennium before.
"I have even from the beginning declared it to thee;
before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou shouldest
say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my
molten image, hath commanded them. Thou hast heard, see
all this; and will not ye declare it? " Isa. 48: 5, 6.
5
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CHAPTER X
".He Shall Confirm the Covenant With Many for
One Week"
The sixty-nine weeks of the prophetic period of
the seventy weeks ended with the manifestation of
the Messiah, the Anointed, in a. d. 27. Now followed
the last week of the period — the final seven years.
"In the midst" of that week the Messiah was to
" cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." Dan.
9:27.
Thus the time prophecy of the seventy weeks
touches the greatest crisis of the ages, — the sacrifice of
Calvary, — to be equaled only when that same Mes-
siah comes again in power and glory, as King of kings
and Lord of lords. And even then his chiefest glory
is the Cross. He is given a name above every name,
because he humbled himself unto death, "even the
death of the cross."
In "the fulness of the time," God sent his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh. That was a wonderful
generation in which to live. When Christ was born
in Bethlehem of Judea, the angels sang, "Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to-
ward men." The quieting, restraining hand of God
seemed laid upon the nations. Dean Prideaux says
of the time of the birth of. Christ: —
While this was a-doing in Judea, the temple of Janus was
66
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Confirming the Covenant 67
shut up at Rome. Their usage was to lay open its gates in
the time of war, and to shut them up in times of peace. They
had been shut only five times since the first building of Rome.
... For at this time there was a general peace all over the
world, and it continued for twelve years together; which was
a proper prelude for ushering in His coming who was the
Prince of Peace, Christ our Lord. — " Connection of the Old
and New Testaments," part 2, book 9. •
Then came the year for the manifestation of the
Messiah, and the word of God came to John in the
wilderness, sending him forth to prepare the way of
the Lord. This, according to the prophecy, was to
come in A. D. 27.
It is interesting to note, also, that this time of
John's ministry of preparation was a sabbatical year
(Edersheim, "Life and Times of the Messiah," Vol.
I, page 278). From the autumn of A. d. 26 to the
autumn of A. D. 27 was the year in which the whole
land was to rest. And just then, on the sabbath-
like stillness, rang out the voice of the wilderness
prophet crying, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every' mountain
and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be-
made straight, and the rough places plain : and the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken ,
it." "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and , all
Judea, and all the region round about Jordan." And
the Lord of glory was revealed. The Spirit came upon
Jesus at his baptism by John, anointing him as the
Messiah, — the Anointed,— and the voice from heaven
cried, "This is my beloved Son."
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The Hand of God in History
"And we beheld his glory," says the apostle,
"the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him,
and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake."
John i: 14, 15.
The exact month of the baptism and anointing of
Christ is not fixed by the 483-year period, reaching
from 457 B. c. to A. d. 27. In these prophetic measur-
ing lines made up of years, the year is the unit; into
greater detail the time prophecies do not "ordinarily
lead us, and it is fully confirmed that the event de-
manded by the prophecy fell within A. D. 27.
Yet, in this case, there is evidence by which to
determine the time of the year with considerable
accuracy. The last week of the prophetic period
allotted to the Jewish people — the final seven years
— runs on from the ending of the 483 years, in A. D.
27, terminating in A. D. 34, when the gospel work,
which had been directed mainly to the Jews, turned in
a special manner to the Gentiles. " In the midst" of
this last seven-year period, the Messiah was to cause
the sacrifices to cease. It was the crucifixion of the
Saviour, the offering of the Lamb of God, that ren-
dered meaningless the further offering of sacrifices
on earthly altars. We know that the crucifixion was
at the Passover, in the spring. As the spring of the
year, therefore, was "in the midst" of the seven years,
we may naturally conclude that the beginning of this
seven-year period was in the autumn. And this
agrees with the findings regarding the time of Ezra's
arrival in Judea to restore Jerusalem and. the delivery
of his commission to the king's officers, in the end of
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Confirming the Covenant 69
summer, or autumn. From the autumn of 457 b. c.
to the autumn of A. d. 2,7, is . exactly the 483-year
period, which was to reach to the anointing, the
manifestation of the Lord Jesus at his baptism.
Three and one-half years after the autumn of A. D.
27, then, — "in the midst of the week," — - the Messiah
was to be cut off. This would bring the crucifixion in
the spring of A. D. 31. And the facts of the gospel
narrative fit exactly into the schedule. It should be
noted, however, that any controversy as to the exact
date, of the crucifixion does not affect the reckoning
of the prophetic period, only so the event came well
within this "week" of seven yeafs. The phrase "in
the midst " .may not necessarily designate the exact
middle point in every case; but, as we shall see, the
evidence in this case points to the time exactly mid-
way of the seven years, as the date of the crucifixion,
as the phrase "in the midst" naturally suggests.
After his baptism, in the autumn of A. D. 27, the
first Passover attended by Jesus would be that of the
next spring, A. D. 28, and the fourth Passover would
be that' of the crucifixion.*
The Gospel of John supplies the list of these four
feasts: — .
1. John 2: 13: "And the Jews' Passover was at J
hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem." (A. D. 28.*)
* It was at this Passover of a. d. 28 that the Jews said to Christ:
"Forty and six years was this temple in building" (John 2:20),
and even then it was hot completed. Josephus says: —
"Now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, . . . under-
took a very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God
and make it larger." — "Antiquities," book 15, chap. 11.
The eighteenth year of his reign, from his conquest of Jerusalem
and the death of its former king, Antigonus, was the year a. u. [year
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70
the Hand of God in History
2. John 5:1: "After this there was a feast of the
Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.*' True, the
text does not say that this was a Passover, and author-
ities guess variously. But the prophetic period is a
guide that establishes the probability of four Passovers
between the baptism and the cross. And the Pass-
over was essentially the feast on which the Jewish
believers were instructed to go "up to Jerusalem."
(A! D. 29.)
3. John 6:4: "And the Passover, a feast of the
Jews, was nigh." (A. D. 30.)
4. John 13: 1 : "Now before the feast of the Pass-
over, when Jesus knew that his hour was come."
(A. D. 31.*)
of Rome] 735. (See SchafFs "History of the Christian Church,"
Vol. I, page 126.) Forty-six years added brings us to a. u. 781,
or a. d. 28. Just the method of the Jews in reckoning their forty-
six years of work on the temple may not be agreed upon; but Farrar
says: "As the temple was begun in [the month] Kislev, the exact
date is probably a. d. 28."— "Life of Christ" chap. 13, note,
* It is sometimes alleged as an objection to a. d. 31 as the
date of the crucifixion, that astronomical calculation shows that the
Passover could not have fallen on Friday in. that year. Aside from
disagreement of authorities in working out the Passover dates,
it is to be remembered that the new moon from which the Passover
was reckoned, was not the astronomical new moon, mathematically
exact, but the new moon of ordinary observation by watchers on the
hilltops. The state of the weather and the vision of the watchers
were factors making it sure that often the new moon of observation
must have been in disagreement with that of exact mathematical
calculation. A German writer, Keim, in his "Jesus of Nazara."
tells how several students demonstrated this matter by actual ob-
servation. He says : —
" Indeed, a careful experimental investigation concerning the
actual time of the first visibility of the new moon afforded to
Wurm, and after him to* Auger and Wieseler, the result that it
could occur on the first, second, third, nay even fourth day after
the astronomical new moon. But since forty-eight hours was the
mean time, and since waiting for the visible new moon must have
a limit and, according to later accounts, was not prolonged by the
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Confirming the Covenant 71
The '/midst of the week" had come; and the
Messiah was to be "cut off, but not for himself."
Dan. 9:26. He was cut off for all men, "for us."
"He was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we' are
healed," Isa.53:5.
He Shall Confirm the Covenant With Many for One Week
The death of Christ for us, when the fulness of ,,
time had come, 1 is too great a theme even to approach
in this outline study of great eras in the fulfilment of
time prophecies. The theme of that infinite sacrifice
will be the study through the ages of eternity. Hu-
man philosophies of the atoning work and ^ministry
seem only to obscure the sacred truth. "He died
for me," is the sum of it all. And all the height and
depth and length and breadth of "the unsearchable
riches of Christ" are in the laying hold by faith of
that glorious truth, "He died for me." Let your
heart say it over, reader, every day: "Who loved me,
and gave himself for me."
The plain texts of Scripture that tell of his love and
life and death for helpless sinners such as we, press the
truths home to the heart in the simple way that heals
the hurt of sin and brings the comfort of eternal hope.
Jews beyond the thirtieth or. the thirty-first of the expiring
month, when, even though no news had been received of its actual
observation, the new moon, or the first day of Nisan, was fixed and
made known by beacons on the hills and later by messenger — on
these grounds Wurm ultimately found that the danger of error
might not be very great if the interval between the Jewish new
moon and the astronomical new moon was reckoned as twenty-four
to forty-eight hours." — Vol. VI, page 242.
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7 2
The Hand of God in History
''Since I, who was undone and lost,
Have pardon through His name and word;
Forbid it, then, that I should boast,
Save in the cross of Christ, my Lord."
There, in the "midst of the week," at the middle point
of the last seven-year period of the prophecy, was set
up the cross, "towering o'er the wrecks of time."
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth," said
Christ, "will draw all men
unto me." John 12:32.
This is why there is a di-
vine power pleading with
every heart to yield to
God. That witness of
conscience which ("in the
day when God shall judge
the secrets of men") will
accuse or else excuse those
who have not had the
light of written revelation
(Rom. 2: 15, 16), is
planted in the heart be-
cause Jesus, the divine
Son of God, died for all,
that all might believe and be saved. "That was the
true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world." John 1 : 9.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." John
3:16.
It was to tell this "good news" to all men that
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Confirming the Covenant 7.3
Christ commissioned his disciples to go forth. The
full period of seventy weeks — 490 years from the
commission to Ezra — had been allotted to the Jew-
ish people. They had been given a special place in
the working out of God's plan. It was not because
God had not all along loved all men, but because
as children of Abraham of old that people were called
to bless all nations by their witness to the living God.
But they had been unfaithful to their trust.. The
mercy of God waited. The prophecy of the seventy
weeks, however, set the bounds beyond which the
Lord could not wait. If that people would not bear
the witness of the living God to all the world, the
work would have to be put into other hands. The
first half of the last week of years had passed, and now
Jerusalem, the city of the great King* had crucified
the Lord of glory. He had come to his own, and his
own received him not.
Yet those who cried, " Crucify him!" were igno-
rant and blind. In the agony of the cross, Christ
prayed for them, " Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do." *
Three and one-half years of his ministry had been
given among them. Three and one-half years yet re-
mained of that last prophetic week. The Messiah
was to "confirm the covenant with many for one
week." In the person of his apostles and witnesses
the gospel was still pressed especially upon that people
of Jerusalem, "to the Jew first," "beginning at Jeru-
salem." The covenant was confirmed with "many/'
"and believers were the more added to the Lord, mul-
titudes both of men and women." Acts 5: 14.
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The Hand of God in History
The three and one-half years of special ministry to
that people would end in A. D. 34. And that was
about the year of Stephen's martyrdom, when the
whole Jewish council had again rejected the . appeal
of the Holy Ghost. The great body of Christian
believers in Jerusalem was driven out by persecution,
and "they that were scattered abroad went every-
where preaching the word." The Gentiles responded
in Samaria ; the Ethiopian treasurer received the
gospel on the road to Gaza. The gospel message
had fairly passed the boundaries of Jerusalem, and was
on its course toward all nations: — "unto the utter-
most part of the earth."
Though every Jew, as every other man, still had
the gospel invitation pressed , upon him, the time of
that 'people as God's special witnesses had passed.
They had failed to keep the trust, and Christ's word
to the Jews was fulfilled: "The kingdom of God shall
be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing
forth the fruits thereof." Matt. 21 : 43. -
That nation is the nation "of them which are
saved," the children of Abraham by faith, "where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor un-
circumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free:
but Christ is all, and in all." Col. 3:11.
"Just as I am, Thy love I own
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be thine, and thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come."
The "sure .word of prophecy" had been fulfilled
in all the events of the "seventy weeks." Each
time the hour struck for the work to be done, the
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Confirming the Covenant
75
fulfilment came. And the Lord Jesus, who is the
Word, gave himself in fulfilling his own words by the
prophets. Thus with his own life, he set his seal to
" the .vision and prophecy," according to the angel's
word to Daniel: "Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish
the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and
to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy." Dan.
9:24.
Let it be recalled again that this first 490 years
of the vision and prophecy are "determined," or cut
off from the yet longer period of 2300 years, reaching
from 457 b. C. to A. D. 1844, when the cleansing of the
sanctuary, the final ministry of our High Priest in
the heavenly temple, was to begin. The exact ful-
filment in the days of his first advent seals up the
vision and prophecy (Dan. 9: 24), and we know of a
surety that when the year 1844 brought the ending
of the great prophetic measuring line, the final phase
of Christ's work was entered upon in the true sanc-
tuary above.
The events on earth connected with the ending
of the 2300 years, in a. d. 1844, will repay study at a
later time in this series of outline notes.
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CHAPTER XI
The Fall of Jerusalem
The cry rang through the city of Jerusalem,
"His blood be upon us!"
It was not the voice of the common people, who
had "heard him gladly." A well-organized minority
secured the condemnation of Jesus. The religious
leaders determined to put a stop to his teaching.
They charged that he taught the people to "trans-
gress the traditions of the elders," the customs of the
church. Jesus answered, "Why do ye also trans-
gress the commandments of God by your tradition?"
Matt. 15:3.
He taught only the old, old truths of the Word of
God, which they professed to follow, but which they
had made void by human tradition. And because
of his loyalty to the divine law, they condemned him
by their human law.
- The Jewish leaders disguised their enmity under
high-sounding phrases. It was a mere matter of
civil procedure. The law of the land must be en-
forced, they argued. "We have a law," they said to
Pilate, " and by our law he ought to die." The Roman
magistrate saw through the "injustice of religious
prejudice. But at the threat of accusation to Caesar
— an ancient form of applying political pressure —
he. yielded at last to the church leaders.
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Fall of Jerusalem
77
How little those Jewish leaders realized the mean-
ing of the cry, "His blood be upon us"! Graetz, a
Jewish historian, evidently looking upon Jesus as a
reformer who was unjustly condemned, says: —
How great was the woe. caused by that one execution!
. . He is the only mortal of whom one can say without ex-
aggeration that his death was more effective than his life.
. . . Strange that events fraught with so vast an import
should have created so little stir at the time of their oc-
currence at Jerusalem! — -"History of the Jews," Vol. IV,
page 165.
The round of social activities ran on, business was
brisk in the city, money was to be made, daily bread
to be earned, and political rivalries were keen. The
people generally could not stop to notice. Yet at
that time the doom of Jerusalem^was sealed.
For a long time before the first advent, tumult
and strife had filled Judea. As the time of Christ's
ministry drew near, there was a change. As plainly
as if by the visible hand of Providence, elements of dis-
order were repressed, the winds of strife were held.
In that quiet interval the voice of Jesus was heard
up and down Judea. But quickly after his cruci-
fixion and ascension, the storm burst again in fury
over the land. In his warning of coming judgment,
Christ had said, " All these things shall come uppn this
generation."
The blow was terrible when it fell. Jerusalem
had been so blessed that when its light became dark-
ness, how great was that darkness! Standing so
high, it fell so low! It chose the evil one as its leader,
and turned away from the protection of the Almighty;
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78 , The Hand of God in History
Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian, says in the
preface to his " Wars of the Jews:" —
Of all the cities which came under the Roman sway,
Jerusalem arrived at a higher degree of felicity than any
other ; and then it fell into a lower depth of calamity. It ap-
pears to me that the misfortunes of all men, from the begin-
ning of the world, are not to be compared with those of the
Jews.
- And in the body of this book he says: —
In one word, and to speak in brief the whole truth, never
did any other city endure such tribulations; and never from
trie beginning of time was any generation more prolific of evil.
— Book 5, chap. 10.
What a testimony to the fulfilment of the woes
pronounced by the voices of the prophets through the
ages of warning and entreaty, which Jesus said would
come upon that generation.
Josephus tells of portents that startled Jerusalem
before the end. A countryman appeared, who cried
in the streets and lanes, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!"
He was severely punished; but to no avail. Espe-
cially at feasts the disquieting cry would be raised,
"Woe to Jerusalem!" This continued, Josephus,
says, —
until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled
in our siege, when it ceased. . For, as he was going round upon
the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, "Woe, woe to .
the city again, and to the people* and to the holy house."
And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also,"
there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him,
and killed him immediately. — Id., book d, chap. 5.
It was in A. D. 66 that the Roman army, under
Cestius, appeared before Jerusalem. Soon there was
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Fall of Jerusalem
79
fighting about the temple itself. The Romans " at-
tempted to break into the temple at the northern
quarter of it; but the Jews beat them off from the
cloisters." The cloisters were parts of the temple
The " tortoise-back " formation for undermining
and scaling walls
buildings. Then, placing their shields together in
the "tortoise-back" formation to protect themselves
from darts shot from the wall above, the Roman
soldiers "undermined the wall, . . . and got all
things ready for setting fire to the gate of the temple."
In his prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem, Jesus
had said to his disciples: —
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation,
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8o The Hand of God in History
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy p'ace
(whoso readeth, let him understand), then let them which
be in Judea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the
housetop not come down to take anything out of his house:
neither let him which is in the field return back to take his
clothes. ... But pray ye that your flight be not in the
winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24: 15-20.
The Roman standards about the temple itself
were a signal to the Christians to flee. Those in the
fields or villages round about could easily do so; but
how could those in the city escape, with the Roman
army encompassing the walls? An overruling Provi-
dence made the way of escape. Josephus says that
just as Cestius had the wall undermined and all in
readiness for the attack, suddenly —
he recalled his soldiers from the place, and by despairing of
any expectation of taking it, without having received any
disgrace, he retired from the city, without any reason in the
wp/ld ''[italics ours]. — "Wars," book 2, chap. ig.
Those Christian believers, watching for the signal
that the Saviour had foretold thirty years before,
must have known well the meaning of the sudden,
unexplainable withdrawal. As the Jews rushed out
to attack the retreating Romans, the moment and the
opportunity for the flight of the Christians had come.
Though the next siege was deferred several years, the
time for flight was- that day when the Jewish forces
rushed from the city. As the fanatical Zealots came
back exulting from slaying the rearguard of Cestius's
army, they came to take possession of affairs in Jeru-
salem, and to organize every force for the next attack.
Christian believers attempting then to get away
would doubtless have met no mercy. James Morri-
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Fall of Jerusalem
son says of conditions that developed in Jerusalem : —
The Zealots created and maintained a "reign -of terror''
akin to that of the French Revolution, only more/dreadful,
and, considering the available scope and compass, more
- bloody. — " Comments on Matthew" page 471.
Four years later the Roman army returned to the
siege. Jerusalem seemed drunken with fury. At
the last Passover ever celebrated in Jerusalem, while
Titus and his army were compassing the walls, rival -
factions of Jews fought and slew one another about
the sacrificial altars of the temple. Satan was in full
command. The hardened Roman besiegers were
astonished at the suicidal rashness of* the people.
Titus tried to persuade them to save at least the tem-
ple. Remonstrating with their leaders, he said: —
Why do you pollute this holy house with the blood both
of foreigners and Jews themselves? I appeal to the gods of
my own country, and to every god that ever had any regard
to this place (for I do not suppose it to be now regarded by
any of them) ; I also appeal to my own army, and to those
Jews that are now with me, and even to you yourselves, that
I do not force you to defile this your sanctuary; and if you
- will but change the place wherein you will fight, no Roman
shall either come near your sanctuary nor offer any affront
to it; nay, I will endeavor to preserve you your holy house
whether you will or not. — Josephus's " Wars" book 6, chap. 2.
But Christ had said of the temple: ''There shall
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall
not be thrown down." Matt. 24:2. Titus's effort
to save the temple in spite of the Jews, failed, and the
house went down in ruins.
This Roman commander and future emperor felt
impressed that there was something supernatural
6
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The Hand of God in History
about the forces of destruction let loose. Josephus
says that as Titus made the rounds one day, —
he gave a groan; and spreading out his hands to heaven, called
God to witness that this was not his doing.— Id., book 5,
chap. 12.
When Christ foretold the coming destruction, the
disciples jcould not see how it was possible for such
walls as those of the temple and towers to be thrown
down. They said to him: " Master, see what manner
of stones and what buildings are here! ,, After the
city fell, and Titus had examined these walls and
towers, he exclaimed, — -
We have certainly had God for our assistant in this wain
and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of
these fortifications. — Id., book 6, chap. g.
The destruction that came upon Jerusalem was
but the fruit of its own ways. When God's pro-
tection was thrust finally aside, even he could not save
from the judgments that were bound in justice to fall
upon persistent transgression.
The witness to the living God is borne by the fulfil-
ment of prophecies of judgment as well as by the
happier prophecies of deliverance. This sad story
of the fall of Jerusalem is one of the lessons of Bible
history "written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the world are come." 1 Cor. 10: 1 1.
Jerusalem fell because it knew not the message
of God for that day and generation, even though the
" sure word of prophecy" had plainly declared it be-
forehand, and the Scriptures of Truth were being
fulfilled before the eyes of all. Many in Jerusalem
saw and believed, and found refuge. But for every
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Fall of Jerusalem 83
man and generation the solemn witness is borne that
Jerusalem fell because it knew not the time of its
visitation. " If thou hadst known, even thou, at
least in this thy day."
"Once to every man and nation comes the moment to
decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil
side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the
bloom or blight, ,
Parts the goats, upon the left hand and the sheep upon
the right, —
And the choice goes by forever, 'twixt that darkness and
that light."
" David's Tower," Jerusalem
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CHAPTER XII
Flash-Light Views of Prophecy
"On the nineteenth of December, a. t). 69," says
Edersheim, "the Roman Capitol, with its ancient
sanctuaries, was set on fire. Eight months later, on
the ninth of Ab [August], a. d. 70, the temple of
Jerusalem was given to the flames/' . '
While the sanctuaries of the Roman and Jewish
worshipers were being laid in ruins, thousands of
Christian disciples were spreading abroad the good
news of a living Saviour, of a High Priest in the
heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary above.
That glorious gospel of life and salvation made
two great truths apparent: —
1 . No earthly city was ever again to be the center of
worship or service.
"The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. . . . But the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh such
to worship him." John 4: 21-23.
"But ye. are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumer-
able company of angels." Heb. 12:22.
2. No earthly priest was ever again to minister at
an edrthly altar.
" For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest." Heb.
8:4.
84
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Prophetic Flash-Lights 85
".Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum:
We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the
sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched,
and not man." Heb. 8:1,2.
But as time went on, the world was to see an
earthly city made the center of worship for a vast
communion ; to see there a throne set up called a Holy
See; and to see'the sacerdotal, or priestly, office' set
up on earth, with thousands of priests serving at
earthly altars.
In fact, it was to see the truths of the sanctuary
above obscured and trampled underfoot. It was to
see an earthly sacerdotal ministry set up under the
profession that the earthly priest and the earthly
altar are the only way of approach to the heavenly.
Surely, when- this development should come, it
would be the great apostasy from truth that Daniel
saw in the vision (Daniel 8), lifting itself up against
the Prince of the host and the sanctuary.
It^was a wonderful view of coming events and
developments given to Daniel of old, as the spirit of
prophecy lighted up dark places in future history.
And the scenes depicted in the prophecy have surely
developed in history. There is a living God who says,
" Before it came to pass I showed it thee."
It is like the flash-light scene and the developed
negative in photography. The photographer comes
into a darkened room with his camera. The flash
is touched off. The light blazes up for an instant,
and the spectator aside may catch the scene in that
flash of a second. He remembers what he saw; and
when the negative is developed, there in clear lines
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The Hand of God in History
worked out, he sees again the view that was presented
to his vision when the light flashed out.
The departure from the truth that led into the great
apostasy had begun even in apostolic days. Paul
said, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work."
His prophetic words picture the whole history of it,
as in just one flash of light.
By the light of prophecy we catch this view of
apostasy: —
"That man of sin'— "Exalteth himself" — "So that he
as God sitteth in the' temple of God". — " Doth already work"
— "Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." 2
Thess. 2:3-8.
That is the scene in the light of prophecy. Has
the negative of history developed anything correspond-
ing to it?
Yes; we have seen such a power developed, ex-
alting itself, speaking as God in the temple, or church,
of God ; and as we note the time of its rise, we see that
it began in apostolic days. Dr. William Barry, -
in his "Papal Monarchy," presents this picture,
drawn by a friendly hand : —
Rome is the meeting-place of all history; the papal suc-
cession, oldest and newest in Europe, filling the space from
Caesar and Constantine to this democratic world "of the
twentieth century, binds all ages into one, and looks out to-
ward a distant future in many continents. — Page 428.
The general outline is clear. But other views
are given in prophecy, showing even greater detail.
A vision was given to Daniel in the third year-of
Belshazzar, king of Babylon. In the light of prophecy
he saw an outline of the world's history : —
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Prophetic Flash-Lights
87
"Four great beasts came up from the sea:" (1) "The first
was like a lion, and had eagle's wings;" (2) "a second, like to
a bear, and it raised up itself on one side;" (3J, "another,
like a leopard, . . . upon the back of it four wings; . . .
the beast had also four heads;" (4) "after this I saw in the
night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful
and terribie, and strong exceedingly; and it had
great iron teeth : it devoured and brake in pieces,
and stamped the residue with the feet of it."
Dan. 7: 3-7.
The angel explained the vision to Dan-
iel: "These great -beasts, which are four,
are four kings, which shall arise out of the
earth." ' Verse 17. The vision, then, cov-
ers the same outline of universal kingdoms
presented in the metallic image of Neb-
uchadnezzar's dream.
The picture is clearly seen developed in
history : — ■
1. Babylon the first, "the glory of kingdoms," as the lion
which symbolized it is^the king of beasts. The eagle's wings
on the lion are fitting to the symbol ; for the prophet Habak-
kuk said of the Babylonians, "They shall fly as the eagle."
2. Medo- Persia, the bear lifting itself upon one side. It
was a dual kingdom, and one side, the Persian, was in the
ascendency. .
3. Greece, the leopard, quick to spring, and, with the wings,
fleet above all. Alexander's campaigns were never equaled
for swift and long marchings that carried the Grecian arms
from Macedon into India within a few years. And the four
heads correspond to the division of the empire "toward the
four winds" (Dan. 11:4), soon after Alexander's death.
4. Rome, "the iron monarchy of Rome," as Gibbon calls
it, was the fourth. Rome was "strong exceedingly," and it
broke in pieces and "stamped the residue with the feet of it."
The correspondence between the picture symbol
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The Hand of God in History
and the power represented is clear in every case.
Certainly the Roman empire answered fully to the
picture.. Thus far the Roman Catholic historian will
go. Cardinal Manning wrote: —
The legions of Rome occupied the circumference of the:
world. The. military roads which sprang from Rome trav-
ersed all the earth ; the whole world was as it were held in
peace and tranquillity by the universal presence of this mighty
heathen empire. It was "exceedingly terrible," according to
the prophecies of Daniel; it was as it were of iron, ^beating
down and subduing the nations, — "The Tempw$(Pmber \ of .
the Pope, 11 page 122 (London, 1862). , 1
But as the prophet looked, he saw still further: —
"And it [this fourth beast] was diverse from all the beasts
that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the
horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little
horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked
up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the
eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things." Verses
7,8.
No wonder the prophet said, "Then I would know
the truth of the fourth beast." Verse 19. And the
angel told him the truth about it: —
"The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon
earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall de-
vour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in
pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings
that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall
be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings."
Verses 23, 24.
The fourth kingdom, Rome, after subduing all the
earth as no kingdom before it, was to be divided *
In the same historic outline in the dream of Nebu-
chadnezzar (Daniel 2), the prophet had said of this
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Prophetic Flash Lights
89
fourth empire, "The kingdom shall be divided."
And coming up among these kingdoms of divided
Rome, the prophet saw another power, a kingdom,
yet a kingdom "diverse from the first." It was a
different kind of kingdom. This was a religious
power, exalting itself, and " speaking great things."
It is .clearly the same power described by Paul (2
. Thessalonians 2), and shown in the vision of the eighth
of Daniel.
The outline picture of the prophecy is seen fully
developed in history. For instance, take the text
of a popular school-book — Myers's "General His-
tory for Colleges ' ' — and place the picture of the
prophecy alongside that of the history.
The prophetic picture (by Daniel and Paul) shows
us —
a spiritual power exalting itself in the church; beginning to
work in apostolic days, but hindered from full development
by some power that was later to be taken away. 2 Thess.
2: 7. Then the breaking up and division of the. Roman em-
pire into lesser kingdoms; and among these kingdoms, as the
great empire breaks up, this religious power develops fully,
speaking " great words.' '
Now the historic picture (by Myers) : —
The downfall of the Roman imperial government in the
West was, further, an event of immense significance in the
political world for the reason that it rendered possible the
growth in western Europe of several nations or states in place
of the single empire.
Another consequence of the fall of the Roman power in
the West was the development of the Papacy. In the' ab-
sence of an emperor in the West the popes rapidly gained in-
fluence and power, and soon built up an ecclesiastical empire
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90 The Hand of God in History
that in some respects took the place of the old empire, and
carried on its civilizing work. — Page 316.
The views are identical. What the prophets saw
in vision and described, the historian finds in history
and records. The history of the Roman Papacy
answers in every detail to the picture that prophecy-
gives of the great apostasy that was to come. .
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CHAPTER XIII
Rise and Work of the Papacy
1 In the vision of the four great kingdoms of Daniel
7, the fourth kingdom was the one that engaged the
special attention of the prophet. Though he lived
in the days of Babylon, it was that fourth monarchy,
Rome, and especially the events following the division
of the empire, that gave him deepest concern: —
"Then I would know the truth," he said, "of the fourth
beast. . . . And of the ten horns that were in his head, and
of the other which came up, and before whom three fell ,
even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very
great things, whose look was more stout- than his fellows.
I beheld, and the same horn made. war with the saints, and pre-
vailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and
judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the
time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." Dan.
7: 19-22. -
The symbol is clear. It shows an ecclesiastical,
kingly power rising in the field of the divided Roman
empire.
The empire, in fact, as shown by another line of
prophetic history in the Revelation, was to give its
ancient seat to this ecclesiastical power: "And the
dragon [that had been working through pagan Rome]
gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.' '
Rev. 13:2. When Constantine removed the capital
to Constantinople, the city of Rome, that ancient
- * 91
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The Hand of God in History
seat of the Caesars, was left to come into possession of
the Papacy, — "that great city, which reigneth over
the kings of the earth." Rev. 17:18.
So the prophecy declared, and so it came to pass.
Cardinal Manning wrote: —
, From the hour when Constantine, in the language of the
Roman law, " Deo jubente" by the command of God, trans-
lated the seat of empire to Constantinople, from that moment
* Of this meeting of emperor and pope, Foxe says: "The emperor,
seeing the bishop, lighteth from his horse to receive him, holding
the stirrup to the prelate on the left side, when he should have held
it on the right, whereat the Pope showed himself somewhat ag-
grieved. . . . The next day to make amends to the bishop, the
emperor, sending for him, received him, holding the right stirrup to
the prelate, and so all the matter was made whole, and he the Pope's
own white son again." — "Acts and Monuments," book 4, under A. D.
ii55.
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The Papacy
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there never reigned in Rome a temporal prince to whom the
bishop of Rome owed a permanent allegiance. From that
hour God himself liberated his church. — "The Temporal
Power of the Pope" page 12 {London, 1862). _
And according to the prophecy, this ecclesiastical
power that secured the ancient seat of empire, was to
set itself forth as a king, even to rule "over the kings
of the earth." The Rev. Jas. P. Conroy, in the Ameri-
can Catholic Quarterly Review (April, 191 1), has said of
the succession of the Papacy to the kingly throne of
the Caesars : —
Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the
Western emperors was left to the mercy of barbarous hordes,
Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked
him to rule them; and thus, in this simple manner, the best
title of all to kingly right, commenced the temporal sov-
ereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of
Caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the
emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence
through so many ages.
The apostasy developed. The bishop of Rome
gradually came to assert precedence over all the
bishops. With the removal of the seat of the empire
to Constantinople, the bishop of that city was a rival.
Schaff says : —
In this long contest between the two leading patriarchs
of Christendom, the patriarch of Rome at last carried the day.
The monarchical- tendency of the hierarchy was much stronger
in the West than in the East, and was urging a universal
monarchy in the church. — "History of the Christian Church"
Vol. Ill, page 236, sec. 57.
Of the times of Pope Simplicius (a. d. 468-483),
when the Western empire fell, Schaff says: —
Now, to a certain extent, it [the Papacy] stepped into the
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The Hand of God in History
imperial vacancy, and the successor of Peter became, in the
mind of the Western nations, sole heir of the old Roman im-
perial succession. — Id., page 323, sec. 64.
The ''little horn" of Daniel's prophecy was lift-
ing itself up, with a look " more stout than his fellows."
The Papacy was inheriting the power, and seat, and
great authority, or prestige, of the universal Roman
empire. The historical development
was an exact filling in of the pro-
phetic outlines. As an old English
writer, Thomas Hobbes, of Malmes-
bury, quaintly said, long ago: —
If any man will consider the original of
this great ecclesiastical dominion, he will
easily perceive that the Papacy is none other than the
ghost of the deceased Roman empire, sitting crowned upon
the grave thereof.
Of the special work of this apostasy in relation
to the truth of God, the angel said to Daniel: —
"And he shall speak great words against the Most High,
and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to
* The triple crown worn by the popes signifies that the wearer
claims not only spiritual power but kingly power and sovereignty
over kings and princes. It is placed on the head of the Pope at
coronation, with the words: "Receive the tiara adorned with three
crowns,, and know that thou art Father of princes and kings, Ruler
of the world, Vicar of our Saviour Jesus Christ." — Catholic Diction-
ary, article "Tiara." "The first Pope who caused himself to be
crowned was Damasus II, in the year 1048; which ceremony has
since been observed by all his successors. Urban V, by others
reckoned VI [i 362-70], was the first who used the triple crown,
commonly called the tiara, which he did to show that the pretended
vicar of Christ is possessed of a threefold power, the pontifical, im-
perial, and royal. For the same reason Peter was wont to be painted,
as may be seen still in the palace of the Vatican, holding three keys
in his right hand."— Bruce' s "Free Thoughts on the Toleration of
Popery" page 38,
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The Papacy
95
change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand
until a time and times and the dividing of time." Dan.
7*25.
That was why Daniel said, as he pondered it after
the vision, "My cogitations much troubled me, and
my countenance changed in me." Verse 28. It is
a mournful story that history tells of the fulfilment.
A few glances at the sad record must suffice for this
outline review : —
I. "He shall speak great words against the Most
High: 1 ' ,
All names which in the Scriptures are applied to "Christ,*
by virtue of which it is established that he is over the church,
all the same names are applied to the Pope. — Cardinal Bell-
armine, "On the Authority of the Councils ," Vol. II, page 27.
All they of the West have their eyes bent on our humility;
they regard us a god on earth. — Pope Gregory II, to the Em-
peror Leo (Ranke's "History of the Popes," page g, London.
i843). /
The decision of the Pope and the decision of God con-
stitute one decision. . . . Since, therefore, -an appeal is al-
ways taken from an inferior judge to a superior, as no one is
greater than himself, so no appeal holds- when made from the
Pope to God, because there is one consistory of the Pope
himself and of God himself, of which consistory the Pope
himself is the key-bearer and doorkeeper. Therefore no one
can appeal from the Pope to God. ... There is one decision
and one. curia of God and of the Pope. — Augustinus de An-
cona, On an Appeal From a Decision, of the Pope {from Latin
copy of the writings of Augustinus, in British Museum).*
How great a dignity God has conferred upon you [the
priest]! how great is the privilege of your order! God has
* The Latin text is given in the Protestant Magazine (first quarter,
191 1), from which all these extracts are selected from among many
others.
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The Hand of God in History
set you above kings. and emperors, he. has set your order
above all orders; nay, rather, to express the idea more pro-
foundly, he has set you above angels and archangels, above
thrones and dominions. — St. Bernard, quoted in u Jesus Living
in the Priest" by Rev. P. Millet, S. J. (New York, 1901, Ben-
•dger Brother s y printers to the Holy See).
The prophet described that " little horn " rightly
by the words "whose look was more stout than his
fellows."
2. " And shall wear out the saints of the Most High."
The history fills in the prophetic outline in colors
red and terrible. In the second century, when pagan
Rome oppressed the Christians, Tertullian, one of the
Catholic Fathers, wrote: —
It is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature,
that every man should worship according to his own con-
victions; one man's religion neither harms nor helps another
man. It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion
— to which free will and not force should lead us. — "Ad
Scapula," chap. 2, Library of " Antenicene Fathers.'' 1
In the third century, Lactantius, another great
Catholic Father, wrote : —
It is religion alone in which freedom has placed its dwell-
ing. For it is a matter which is voluntary above all others,
nor can necessity be imposed upon any, so as to worship that
which he does not wish to worship. — "Epitome of the Di-
vine Institutes " chap. 54, id.
This is in accord with the teaching of Jesus
" Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are
Caesar's; and . unto God the things that are God's." Matt.
22:21. "If any man hear my words, and believe not,. I
judge him not. . . ,< The word that I have spoken, the same
shall judge him in the last day." John 12:47, 48. "My
kingdom is not of this world." • John 18: 36.
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The Papacy 97
"The weapons of our warfare," said the apostle
Paul, "are not carnal." But a change came, a "fall-
ing away," as the prophecy predicted. The fallen
church coveted the power of earthly kingdoms; and
laying aside the "sword of the Spirit," it seized the
Early Reformers burned by the Council of Constance
sword of civil power. Prof. Alfred Baudrillart, rector
of the Catholic Institute of Paris, says: —
The Catholic Church is a respecter of conscience and of
liberty, as we were lately reminded in clear and beautiful
language from the pulpit of Notre Dame; with Saint Bernard,
the Fathers, and other theologians, she believes and pro-
fesses that faith is a work of persuasion, not of force, "fides
suadenda est, non imponenda." She has, and she loudly pro-
claims that she has, a ''horror of blood." Nevertheless when
confronted by heresy, she does not content herself with
persuasion; arguments of an intellectual and moral order
appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to
corporal punishment, to torture. She creates tribunals like
those of the Inquisition. She calls the laws of state to her
aid ; if necessary, she encourages a crusade, or a religious war,
and all her "horror of blood" practically culminates into
7
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The Hand of God in History
urging the secular power to shed it, which proceeding is almost
more odious — for it is less frank — than shedding it herself.
Especially did she act thus in the sixteenth century with re-
gard to Protestants. Not content to reform morally, to
preach by example, to convert people by eloquent and holy
missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low Countries, and above
all in Spain, the funeral piles of the Inquisition. In France,
under Francis I and Henry II, in England under Mary Tudor,
she tortured the heretics, whilst both in France and Germany
during the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of
Martyrs of the English Reformation
the seventeenth century, if she did not actually begin, at any
rate she encouraged and actively aided, the religious wars.
No one will deny that we have here a great scandal to our
contemporaries. — 11 The Catholic Church, the Renaissance and
Protestantism" pages 182, 18 j (Kegan Paid, Trench, Trubner
& Co., London, iqo8).
The testimony is sufficient to recall the long
history of those dark days when the Roman Catholic
Church was dominant among earthly powers. It
shows that the cruel work predicted by the prophecy
was accomplished. The Catholic writer states the
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99
facts frankly ;*f or his answer to this record of the past
is that a change has come. "A gentler spirit pre-
vails.' ' ''The church no longer thinks of using its
ancient rights, and the state, supposing it returned to
Catholicism, would beware of helping her even if
asked." — Id,, page 184, And, furthermore, the
writer shows that some* Protestants in the old days
got possession of civil power and used it against
Catholics, even to the death, and against dissenters
from popular religious practises and teachings.
But this is only to argue that those who came out
from the Roman Papacy in the Reformation times
saw many things with the eyes of their former teacher.
The leaven of the papal principle of union of the civil
and the religious was still working. And no'Protes-
> tant can consistently protest against the persecutions
of the dark ages who does not take his stand squarely
on the Christian principle that religion shall not seek
the aid of the civil power.
, 3. " And think to change times and laws. 11 '
As the apostasy was a "'falling away" from the
truth of God, the change in times and laws must re-
late to God's law and God's time. Yet it was all to
be done in the name of divine authority; for the "law-
less" one sits "as God," in the- temple of God.
The standards of the Roman Church plainly
declare that the church has made one great change
that affects God's law at the very point of God's time.
The law of God says : —
"'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy... Six days
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." J .
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The Catholic Church claims to have changed the
day of the Sabbath. In the Catholic work, "An
Jesus: " I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in
his love." John: " This is the love of God, that we keep his com-
mandments."
Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine" (page 58),
under questions on the fourth commandment, we
read : —
Question. — By whom was it changed?
Answer. — By the governors of the church.
Ques. — How prove you that the church hath power to
command feasts and holy days?
Ans. — By the very act of changing the Sabbath into
Sunday, which Protestants allow of, and therefore they fondly
contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly, and break-
ing most other feasts commanded by the same church.
Ques. — How prove you this?
Ans. — Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge
the church's power to ordain feasts and to command them un-
der sin.
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The Papacy < , 101
The prophecy foretold that this apostasy, which
began its lawless working in apostolic days, would
" think " to change times and laws. In Challoner's
"Catholic Christian Instructed," page 211, we read
again : —
Ques. — What was the reason why the weekly Sabbath
was changed from the Saturday to the Sunday?
Ans. — Because our Lord fully accomplished the work
of our redemption by rising from the dead oh a Sunday, and
by sending down the Holy Ghost on a Sunday; as therefore
the work of our redemption waa a greater work than that
of our creation, the primitive church thought [italics ours]
the day in which this work was completely finished, was more
worthy her religious observation than that in which God
rested from the creation, and should properly be called the
Lord's day. v . :
That is what the primitive church " thought,"
the catechism says ; and that, is what the prophecy
said the church of the " falling away " would "think"
to do. It was not the primitive church, but those
who fell away from the primitive standards who did
the work. However early this perversion of the
truth began, it came to its full development within a
few centuries of apostolic times. The councils of
this church of the falling away denounced the keeping
of the seventh day, which God had made holy, and
enjoined the Sunday festival, which men had sub-
stituted. The Scriptures know nothing of First-
day sacredness. Cardinal Gibbons says: —
You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and
you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctincation of
Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance
of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.— ".The Faith
of Our Fathers" page in.
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102 The Hand of God in History
The three counts of the prophecy are sustained by
the testimony of history. The Roman Papacy has
spoken great words against the Most High; it has
worn out the saints of the Most High; and it has
" though t" to change the times and the laws of the
Most High.
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CHAPTER XIV
Beginning of the 1260 Years of Papal Supremacy
" And they shall be given into his hand until a time and
times and the dividing of time." Dan. 7:25.
The spirit of apostasy was abroad in apostolic
days. " The mystery of iniquity doth already work,"
wrote the apostle Paul. 2 Thess. 2: 7. It was seen
in the perversion of truth, and in the spirit of self-
exaltation that was to put man in the place of "God,
man's way in the place of God's way, man's day in
the place of God 's holy day, and to set human, mortal
man as priest at an earthly altar, in place of the divine,
ever-living High Priest in the^ heavenly sanctuary
above.
And this apostasy was to continue its work .until
the second coming of Christ. 2 Thess. 2:8., "I be-
held," said Daniel, "and the same horn made war
with the saints, and prevailed against them; until
the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given
to the saints of the Most Highland the time came
that the saints possessed the kingdom." Dan. 7:
21,22.
But a period of years was assigned in the prophecy
during which in a special sense this power was to
assert supremacy over the saints and times and laws
of the Most High; "They shall be given into his
hand until a time and times and the dividing of time."
103
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The year is called a "time" in Scripture — "at
the end of times, even years" (Dan. n : 13, margin).
"A time [one year] and times [plural, two years] and
the dividing of time [half-year] " is three years and one
half. According to the Jewish year of 360 days, this
makes 1260 prophetic days, or literal years. This
period is repeated again and again in the prophecies
concerning this apostasy — sometimes as forty- two
months (1260 days, Jewish time), again as a thousand
and two hundred and threescore days." See Dan.
12: 7; Rev. 11: 2, 3; 12:6, 14; 13:5.
The long 1260-year period, therefore, marks the
time of the special papal supremacy. When did this
period begin?
In the vision of Daniel 7, the prophet witnessed
the division of the Roman empire into ten kingdoms.
Then up among these he saw the "little horn," the
Papacy, rising, with its stout look. And before it —
in its presence — he saw "three of the first horns
plucked up by the roots." And the history shows
that three of the ten kingdoms of divided Rome —
three kingdoms that were Arian, or unorthodox in
religion — were literally "plucked up," clearing the
way of the Papacy.
The questions to be answered in the study of this
prophetic period are : —
At what time in the growth of the Papacy was it
given power (over the saints and times and laws)
answering to the prophecy?
What vital events of well-established and in-
controvertible history mark the beginning of the
prophetic period of 1260 years?
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Time of Papal Supremacy
105
Do similarly vital events mark the close of that
period? -
The answer to these questions must be found in
history; and the record there is clear. A pivotal
point between ancient and medieval history was the
time of Justinian, who ruled
the Roman empire from
Constantinople. It was in
the opening half of the sixth
century. J. B. Bury says
of Justinian:: —
He may be likened to a
colossal Janus bestriding . the
way of passage between the an-
cient and medieval worlds, . . .
His military achievements de-
cided the course of the history
of Italy, and affected the devel-
opment of western Europe; . . >.
and his ecclesiastical authority
influenced the distant future of Christendom —"History of
the Later Roman Empire " Vol. /, pages 351-353 .
Of this world-shaping time, George Finlay says : —
The reign of Justinian is more remarkable as a portion of
the history of mankind than as a chapter in the annals of the
Roman empire or of the Greek nation. The changes of
* Justinian's turn of mind made him a fit instrument to establish
the rule of papal despotism. Dudden says: '"Of all the princes
who reigned at Constantinople,' writes Agathias, 'he was the first
to show himself absolute sovereign of the Romans in fact as well as
in name' (Hist. V. 14). ... He gathered all the wires into his hands,
and his puppets had to dance as he directed. Nor would he ever
tolerate the least infraction of obedience, for he himself was perfectly"
persuaded that ' nothing was greater, nothing more sacred, than the
imperial majesty' (Cod, Just. I. xiv. 12).", — " Life of Gregory the
Great," Vol. I, pages i8 t ig,
Justinian *
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106 The Hand of God in History
centuries passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one
generation. — "Greece Under the Romans" page 231.
And just here — in this epoch-making generation
— we find the pivotal point in the history of the
Papacy, the stage at which it passed from the days of
strife for power to the period of acknowledged suprem-
acy assigned in prophecy to the 1260 years.
In A. D. 533 Justinian issued his famous letter,
imperially recognizing the bishop of Rome as the head
of all the churches. The letter was addressed to the
bishop of Rome on the occasion of the promulgation
of a severe edict against heretics. J ustinia n wrote : —
' Therefore we have been sedulous to subject and unite all
the priests of the Orient throughout its whole extent to the
see of Your Holiness. Whatever questions happen to be
mooted at present, we have thought necessary to be brought
to Your Holiness's knowledge, however clear and unquestion-
able they may be, and though 'firmly held and taught by all
the clergy in accordance with the doctrine of your Apostolic
See; for we do not suffer that anything which is mooted, how-
ever clear and unquestionable, pertaining to the state of the
churches, should fail to be made known to Your Holiness, as
being head of all the churches. For, as we have said before,
we are zealous for the increase of the honor and authority of
your see in all respects. — Cod, Justin., lib. 1, title i, Baronii
Annates Ecclesidstici, torn. 7, ann. 533, sec. 12. {Translation
as given in 11 The Petrine Claims" by R. F. Littledale.)
The emperor's letter to the Pope had all the effect
of a decree, and was later counted as such in the
official acts. A later emperor, Phocas (a. d. 606),
also recognized this headship of the Pope; but Dr.
Croly says: —
The highest authorities among the civilians and annalists
of Rome spurn the idea that Phocas was the founder of the
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Time of Papal Supremacy
107
supremacy of Rome; they ascend to Justinian as the only
legitimate source, and rightly date the title from the memo-
rable year 533. — "Apocalypse of St. John" page 172*
The critical period in the history and the prophecy
was at hand. But when Justinian's letter was issued,
in 533, a heretical Arian and Gothic king ruled Italy
from Ravenna, his capital. The Gothic kings claimed
the right to interfere in papal elections at Rome.
To restore Italy to the empire and drive out Arian
heresy Justinian undertook his Italian campaigns.
While in the sixteen years of these campaigns the city
of Rome " changed masters five times, and suffered
three severe sieges," the crisis of the contest was
reached in 538, at the close of the first siege. The
imperial army, under Belisarius, held the city of
Rome; and the Goths, under King Witiges, had
gathered practically their whole nation to take it.
"If a single post had given -way," says Gibbon, "the
Romans, "and Rome itself, were irrecoverably lost."
The Goths were defeated, and this defeat, says Hodg-
kin, dug " the grave of the Gothic monarchy in Italy."
("Italy and Her Invaders," Vol. IV, book 5, chap.
9.) Though again and again the Goths rallied, and
twice afterward occupied Rome, this resistance of 538
against Witiges was the crucial hour in the history.
Finlaysays: —
With the conquest of Rome by Belisarius, the history of
the ancient city may be considered as terminating ; and with
his defense against Witiges [538] commences the history of the
middle ages. — "Greece Under the Romans page 2Q$.
And the middle ages was, roughly speaking, the
day of the Papacy. As Dr. Wm. Barry says, —
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The Hand of God in History
If the Papacy were blotted out from the world's chronicle,
the middle ages would vanish along with it. — " The Papal
Monarchy " page 4.
Not only was this stroke by the imperial sword at
Rome, in 538, a decisive event in clearing the way for
the assertion of the papal supremacy already rec-
ognized in the imperial letter of 533, but another
deeply significant train of events begins with this
year of 538.
Pope Silverius had been made pope by the in-
fluence of the Gothic king. In November, 537,
through intrigue and on accusation that he had
negotiated to betray the city to the besieging Goths,
Silverius was stripped of his papal robes by Beli-
sarius, and exiled, and Vigilius was named in his stead.
But the emperor intervened, and sent Silverius back
to Rome, early in 538, with orders for a trial, and to be
restored to the papal throne if found innocent. Beli-
sarius delivered him to Vigilius, who quickly got him
off to a desolate island, where he died, June 20, 538.
Vigilius was thereafter recognized as pope. And of
him Schaff says : —
Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the papal
chair under the military protection of Belisarius (538-554).
• — "History of the Christian' Church Vol. Ill, page 327.
. The arms of the empire put the Pope there; and
though he was personally humiliated under Justin-
ian's arbitrary demands that he should approve and
condemn according to imperial fancy, this use of the
papal supremacy strengthened the idea that the Pope
of Rome must be the one to speak and condemn for
the universal church.
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Time of Papal Supremacy 109
Next, Pelagius, I (554-560) was made pope "by
order of Justinian," says Schaff, and this time again
his elevation to the papal seat was secured "by the
military aid of Narses." Pelagius demanded frankly
that the arms that had put a pope on the throne should
enforce subjection to papal rule against bishops who
failed to recognize his authority: — ■
Pelagius endeavored to enlist the civil power in his aid.
He wrote several letters to Narses, who seems to have shrunk
from using violence, urging him to have no scruples in the
matter. These letters are an unqualified defense of the prin-
ciple of persecution. — Smith and W ace, Dictionary of Chris-
tian Biography, article tl Pelagius" {Pope).
Thus the Papacy asserted its claim to wield the
civil sword of persecution. The supremacy had been
recognized imperially in Justinian's decree of 533.
The sword had struck a decisive blow to clear the way
in 538, and the arms that there set the Pope on the
throne continued to be used by the Papacy in its war-
fare against the saints and the laws of the Most High.
In Bemont and Monod's "Medieval. Europe" we
read: —
Down to the sixth century all popes are declared saints
in the martyrologies. Vigilius (537*~555) is the first of a series
of popes who no longer bear this title, which is henceforth
sparingly conferred. From this time on the popes, more and
more involved in worldly events, no longer belong solely to
the church ; they are men of the state, and then rulers of the
state. — -Page 120 {revised by George Burton Adams, Henry.
Holt & Co., 1902).
* The exact date should be 538, as given above in the quotation
from Schaff 's history. "From the death of Silverius the Roman
Catholic writers date the episcopacy of Vigilius." (Bower's " His-
tory of the Popes," under year 538.)
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The Hand of God in History
However we may approach the subject, the history
points its finger to that crucial point. As stated in
the quotation from Finlay, "the changes of centuries
passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one
generation.' ' The time of the prophecy had come
when the Papacy was to enter upon the 1260. years of
supremacy. ..
In A. D. 533 came the memorable letter, or decree,
of Justinian recognizing the supremacy of the Pope,
and in A. D. 538 came the stroke with the sword at
Rome cleaving the way, and setting on the papal
throne the first of the new order of popes — the
kingly rulers of state.
The prophecy assigned a period of 1260 years to
this supremacy. At the end of that period came
equally significant and epoch-making events, adver-
tising to the world the end of the prophetic period.
Just 1260 years from the decree of a. d. 533 in favor
of the Papacy, came a decree, in 1793, aimed at the
Papacy; and just 1260 years from that stroke with the
sword at Rome in behalf of the Papacy, came a stroke
with the sword at Rome against the Papacy.
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CHAPTER XV
Ending of the 1260 Years of Papal Supremacy
The prophetic measuring line of 1260 years, as :
signed to the special supremacy of the Papacy, reaches
from date to date in the history. But more than that,
it also links together two great world crises of pro-
found significance in the development of the work of
God, and of deepest interest to the student of history.
As the Papacy rose to supremacy, its wrath fell
upon those who stood for God's truth., The work of
-this apostasy is thus described: —
"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great
things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to
continue ["make war," margin] forty and two months. And
he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to bias-'
pheme his name, and his tabernacle [the sanctuary above, by
substituting a priestly service below], and them that dwell in
heaven. And it was given unto him to make .war with the
saints, and to overcome them : and power was given him over
all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." Rev. 13:5-7.
That was the day of the Papacy. And the noon-
tide of the Papacy, as Wylie says, was the world's
midnight. It was the rule of absolute authority that
asked only to be obeyed. And the spiritual tyranny
in the papal system set the mold for the civil and
political life of the nations. It was the reign of abso-
lutism and intolerance.
The prophecy assigned 1260 years to this phase of
the supremacy of the Papacy. The supremacy was
in
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The Hand of God in History
established in that remarkable period of history when,
as Finlay says, the changes of centuries passed before
men's eyes within a few years. The measuring line
of the prophecy runs on 1260 years, and, lo, its end
touches another great epoch-making crisis of history
— Europe in the throes of the French Revolution.
Alison says, in the opening words of the Introduction
to his • 11 History of Europe : " —
There is no- period in the history of the world which can
be compared, in point of interest and importance, to that
which embraces the progress and termination of the French
Revolution. In no former age were events of such magnitude
crowded together, or interests so momentous at issue between
contending nations. From the flame which was kindled in
Europe, the whole world has been involved in conflagration;
and a new era has dawned upon both hemispheres from the
effects of its extension. — Vol. I, page 1. .
Then we have at the beginning of the prophetic
period the notable decree (by the Papacy's chief
supporter) in A. D. 533, formally recognizing papal
supremacy, and a decisive stroke with the sword at
Rome, cleaving the way, in 538.
Exactly 1260 years later we have the notable decree
of the French government (which had been the
Papacy's chief supporter), abolishing church and
religion, in 1793, and a decisive stroke with the sword
at Rome, in 1798. The parallel is complete.
The narrative of events so striking and the com-
ments thereon must.be brief. , Of the decree of 1793
against all religion, — because, in the minds of the
French, the Papacy represented religion, — W. H.
I Hutton says : —
On Nov. 26, 1793, the convention of which seventeen
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End of the 1260 Years
113
bishops and some clergy were members, decreed the abolition
of all religion. — ' * The A ge of Revolution, ' ' page 256.
That revolutionary movement, stripped of the
frenzy and the fury of the days of terror, was a revolt
against absolutism and tyranny, for which the Papacy
had stood. It was the bull of Pope Innocent III that
annulled the Great Charter of English liberties which
the barons had wrested from King John at Runny-
mede; and in. the papal scheme had originated the
"doctrine .of the divine right of kings, bestowed through
the Pope, whose position was that of king of kings.
But a new time was to come,— the time of the
prophecy. The full reign of papal principles had
been cut short by the great Reformation. By the
preaching of the word of God and the gospel of Christ's
free grace, the people of Europe were awakened. The
apprehension of spiritual liberty worked for general
enlightenment and political and civil liberty. The
old federation of kingdoms called the Holy Roman
Empire began to break up. Politically and religiously,
northern Europe had broken with the middle ages,
and had set its face resolutely forward. But in the
affairs of the civil order much of the medieval re-
mained. Duruy says of the time just before the
French Revolution : —
. Thus the middle ages, destroyed in the political system,
in the. civil system still existed. — "History of Modern Times"
page 498,
The Papacy, as has been shown, stood for the
middle ages. And absolutism was still struggling to
keep , the 1 thoughts and aspirations of the new time
repressed and confined in the old forms. But the
8 " .
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The Hand of God in History
new wine broke the old bottles. The time of the
prophecy came, and in the French Revolution was
presented the symbol of outraged humanity goaded
to madness, rising up and tearing away its fetters;
and because the Papacy stood for religion in the eyes
of the French people, they plunged into stark atheism.
But all history recognizes that, in spite of the
indescribably wicked excesses and the suicidal anarchy
and the defiance of God, the time of that terrible
convulsion was a turning-point in the history of man-
kind. "Absolute monarchy,'' as Edmund Burke
said at the time, "breathed its last without a struggle."**
The dawn of the era of constitutionalism and liberty
began to spread in blessings over the world. It was .
hot the terrible revolution that did it ; that was simply
one of the events marking the time of the prophecy.
The " sure word "' had declared that then the reign
of papal supremacy should be broken.,
The decree of the French Convention, in 1793,
was followed by the stroke with the sword against the
Papacy, at Rome, in 1798., In the Revelation, the
prophet was shown this apostate power "wounded to
death" (Rev. 13:3); for "he that leadeth into cap-
tivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the
sword must be killed with the sword" (verse 10). -
An English Jesuit writer, Rev. Joseph Rickaby,
tells the story of the fulfilment of this prophecy. Of
course he would not admit the application of the
prophecy for a moment; but nevertheless he supplies
the record of facts: —
When, in 1797, Pope Pius VI fell grievously ill, Napoleon
gave orders that in the event of his death no successor should
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Ii6 The Hand of God in History
be elected to his office, and that the Papacy should be dis-
continued.
But the Pope recovered; the peace was soon broken;
Berthier entered Rome on the tenth of February, 1798, and
proclaimed a republic. The aged pontiff refused to violate
his oath by recognizing it, and was hurried from prison to
prison into France. Broken with fatigue and sorrows, he
died on the nineteenth of August, 1799, in the French fortress
of Valence, aged eighty-two years. No wonder that half
Europe thought Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that
with the Pope the Papacy was dead. — " The Modern Papacy,"
page 1 {Catholic Truth Society \ London).
The prophecy was fulfilled. The "deadly wound "
was given. And the blow with the sword was struck
at Rome in 1798, just 1260 years from the year 538,
when the sword of empire turned the scale in the
campaign that won the city of Rome for the Papacy,
and placed in the papal chair the first of that new
order of popes, no longer
to be listed in the martyr-
ologies, but as "men of the
state, and then rulers of
the state."
Napoleon had given
orders that the Papacy
should be discontinued in
the event of the Pope's
death. And in those days
Napoleon was very gen-
erally having his way.
But in the vision in which
the prophet saw the deadly
wound given, he was shown
a further turn of events: —
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End of the 1260 Years
117
"And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death ;
and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered
after the beast. ... And they worshiped the beast, saying,
Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with
him?" Rev. 13:3, 4.
1 ' No wonder that half Europe thought Napoleon's
veto would be obeyed, " says the Jesuit writer, "and
that the Papacy was dead;" and he adds: —
Yet since then, the Papacy has been lifted to a pinnacle
of spiritual power unreached, it may be, since earliest Chris-
tian history: we have seen England, which went mad over
Garibaldi, enthusiastic over the unimagined > splendors of
Leo's jubilee, and, with all Europe, awestruck, as she watched
him die. And to whom of modern rulers' does our press apply
the noblest of Christian epithets, if not to the pontiff, and to
him alone, now reigning? — lb.
And so the deadly wound is being healed. The
"sure word of prophecy" is being fulfilled to the letter.
Many who lived in the days of the French Revo-
lution and just after, were profoundly convinced that
the world had been passing through a crisis in which
prophecy was fulfilled.* Dr. Adam Clarke, the fa-
mous Methodist commentator who lived in those
* In reviewing the special interest in the study of the subject
of Christ's second advent, which arose in the early nineteenth cen-
tury," Edward Miller, M. A., of London, speaks of Ben Ezra's book
on the second advent, printed in Spain about 1 8 12, and. adds: In
the next year appeared Cunningham's 4 Dissertation on the Seals
and Trumpets,' in which the period of 1260 years mentioned in the
Apocalypse was fixed as extending from the edict of Justinian, in
533 A. d., to the French Revolution, being the period during which
the celebrated code, of Justinian was in force; for the French Revo-
lution became the means of the introduction of the code of Napo-
leon, by which the previous code was abrogated. Till that epoch
the code of Justinian remained the basis of ecclesiastical law. In',
the ensuing year, Mr. Hatley, Frere published his 4 Combined Views
of the Christian Prophecies.'' This was a book which acquired a
great reputation among those who afterward made up the school of
prophecy, which was now in infancy." — " Irvingism," Vol. I, page 10,
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times, in 1825 (or earlier) wrote on Dan. 7:25, 26: —
The end [of the Papacy] is probably not very distant;
it has already been grievously shaken by the French. In
1798 the French republican army under General Berthier
iQfik^pgse^sion jof . jthe. city oj^orpe^ and entirely sup erse ded.
the whole papal Pow er, TliisjYa^
^t^r^eje^TtJt^ago^ar^^ b e healed. — "Commentary".
The attention of all the world was called to the
events that marked the ending of the 1260 years.
What a remarkable measuring line of prophecy!
Truly it does more than connect date with date.
It links together two great crises of human history
in which the prophetic word was being fulfilled.
One end of that thread of years touches a time-
when the figure of Justinian, like a colossus, as Bury
described it, bestrode the point where ancient and
medieval history met; when "the changes of cen-
turies," as Finlay said, "passed in rapid succession
before the eyes of one generation." And out of these
events came the special exaltation of the Papacy.
The other end of the measuring line touches a time
when another colossal figure — -that of Napoleon —
strode through history, when again two eras met;
and again " the changes of centuries passed in rapid
succession before the eyes of one generation." And
at that time the wound was given the Papacy. Com-
menting on the "era of Napoleon" and the time of
the French Revolution, Alison says: —
Within the space of twenty years, events were in that
era accumulated which would have filled the whole annals .
of a powerful state in any former age. — "History of Europe,"
Vol. I, Introduction, page 2.
And with the completion of the great prophetic
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End of the 1260 Years
119
period of the 1260 years, the world was hastening on
into the " time of the end," and toward the last scenes
in the great controversy between truth and error.
Fierce as the prophetic scriptures show the closing
conflict to be, the same scriptures give assurance that
the victory will be on the side of truth. At times in
the long .reign of apostasy through the dark ages,
it must have seemed to true hearts. in the midst of the
conflict that evil would hold the world in darkness.
Witnesses to the true light were hurried from the
dungeon to the stake. They could only hold for God
and right, and fall with faces to the front. But even
these fell victorious over apostasy : —
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and
by the word of their testimony ; and they loved not their lives
unto the death." , Rev. 12: 11.
The words of their Captain rang in their ears above
the shouting and the tumult: "I am he that liveth,
and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore,
Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." He
watched over his own through the long night of papal
supremacy; and when the time of the prophecy came,
his overruling power wrought his purposes out of those
days of convulsion and change.
As we face the closing conflict, with many an hour
of darkness yet to come, when the enemy will ap-
parently triumph, we have the Lord's assurance:
"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world." Of the triumph over the forces of error it is
written: " These shall make war with the Lamb, and
the Lamb shall overcome them : for he is Lord of lords,
and King of kings: and they that are with him are
called, and chosen, and faithful." Rev. 17: 14.
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I20 The Hand of God in History
Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness ,'twixt old. systems and
the Word; ;
Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne,—-
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim un-
known . '
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his
own."
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CHAPTER XVI
The " Two Witnesses "
One of the outlines of prophecy covering the 1260
years of papal supremacy, deals particularly with the
warfare of the evil one against the Holy Scriptures.
The great aposta'sy was a turning away from the
Word of God to human tradition. The Scriptures
bore constant witness to the departures from the
truth. As the "man of sin" stood revealed, exactly
answering to the description of ' the prophecy, it was
only natural that the apostate church should seek to
hide away from the common people this divine wit-
ness to its fallen character.
But, though for the allotted period the saints and
times and law of the Most High fell under the per-
secuting and perverting power of the Papacy, the
witness of the Holy Scriptures among the people
could never be wholly silenced. The Lord Jesus had
declared in the revelation to John concerning this
period of papal supremacy: —
"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they
shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days
[the 1260-year period], clothed in sackcloth. These are the
two olive-trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the
God of the earth." Rev. 11:3, 4;
These two living witnesses to Christ are mani-
festly the Old and New Testaments. In the days
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122 The Hand of God in History
of his first advent Christ said of the Old Testament
witness: " Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify
of me." John 5 : 39. • And now in apostolic days In-
spiration had given the further witness of the New
Testament. These are the two ever-living wit-
nesses of Jesus. They are the olive-trees pouring
forth the oil of divine grace; for the Scriptures are
"the word of his grace. " These are the two light-
giving candlesticks; for the Holy Scriptures are the
lamp unto the feet and the light unto the path.
In the further description of the two witnesses,
additional features are given, identifying them with
the word of the Lord spoken by inspiration through
his, prophets : —
"And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of
their mouth, and devoureth. their enemies: and if any man
will hurt them, he must in this manner be' killed. These have
power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their
prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood,
and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will."
Verses 5, 6. '
It was the word of the Lord, by his servants, that
in old time shut the heavens from rain, turned water
into blood, smote the earth with plague, and brought
down the consuming fire. And that living word of
God will assuredly in the last day speak the con-
demnation of all who fight against it. "He that re-
jecteth me," said Jesus, "and receiveth not my words,
hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have
spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day."
John 12 : 48. Then shall "that wicked," the " man of
sin," be consumed "with the spirit of his mouth"
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The "Two Witnesses"
123
— - the living word that is sharper than any two-
edged sword.
With one voice the Holy Scriptures, the Old and
New Testaments, bore witness for the Lord Jesus and
against apostasy all through the dark days of papal
rule. Power was given to these two witnesses to en-
dure. Their enemies could never destroy them; for
they are "the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever." 1 Peter 1:23.
But they bore their testimony clothed in sack-,
cloth, or mourning. Truth was being trodden under-
foot. The Papacy was wearing out " the saints of the
Most High." Friends of the Bible were put to the
torture and the death. Copies and portions of the
Book itself were diligently sought out and burned.
The church council of Toulouse (southern France),
held in the year 1229, forbade the people to possess the
books of the Old and New Testaments in their own
tongue. Inquisition was made for any portions of
Scripture hidden in the homes of the people. But
still the light was never quenched, nor the voices of
the witnesses silenced. One frank old Inquisitor,
Reinerius, has told how the Waldensian, or Vaudois,
missionaries carried the treasure of the blessed Word
to the people when it meant death to the missionary
if caught by agents of the Inquisition. He says: —
The heretics cunningly devise how they may insinuate
themselves into the familiarity of the noble and the great;
and this they do in manner following: They exhibit for sale,
to the lords and ladies, rings and robes, and other wares
which are likely to be acceptable. When they have sold
them, if asked whether they have any more goods for sale,
one of these traveling pedlers will answer: I have a jewel far
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124
The Hand of God in History
more precious than these, which I will readily give you, if
you will secure me against being betrayed to the priests. The
security being pledged, the heretic then proceeds to say:
I possess a brilliant gem from God himself : for through it
man comes to the knowledge of God ; and I have another,
which casts out so ruddy a heat that it forthwith kindles the.
love of God in the heart of the owner. In like manner pro-
ceeds he to speak of all his. other metaphorical gems. Then
he recites a chapter from Scripture, or from some part of our
Lord's discourses.
The reader will recognize in this account the basis
of Whittier's poem of the "Vaudois Teacher." A
few of the poet's lines we must quote alongside these
of the ill-natured Inquisitor. After the pilgrim trader
from the Alpine valleys has effected a sale to the lady
of the castle, he says : —
" l O lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer luster flings
Than the diamond flash of the jeweled crown on the lofty
brow of kings, — .
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue shall
not decay,
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee and a blessing on thy
way ! ' .',*''
"The lady glanced at the mirroring steel where her form of
grace was seen,
Where her eye shone clear, and her dark locks waved their
clasping pearls between ;
' Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, thou traveler
gray and old,
And name the price of thy precious gem, and my page shall
count thy gold.' *
"The cloud Went off from the pilgrim's brow, as a small and
meager book,
Unchased with gold or gem of cost, from his folding robe
he took.
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The "Two Witnesses"
125
* Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, may it prove as such
to thee!
. Nay — keep thy gold — I ask it not, for the Word of. God
is free.'"
Sometimes the very paper leaves of the Holy
Book seemed instinct with life, as providentially the
printed page was guided here and there to bear the
witness. We are told how, in the days of Bible burn-
ing in Hungary, a zealous count gathered out of his
estate all the Bibles and Scripture portions to be found.
They were heaped up in a pile in his courtyard, while
he sat in state to watch the flames consume the pre-
cious volumes.
As the fire, leaped upward, a gust of wind: swept in
and caught up one of the curling leaves, dropping it,
with edges blackened and scorched, into, the count's'
lap. As he looked down upon it, his eyes read the
words,— / •
"For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof
falleth away: but the word of the Lord endure th forever."
Startled and dismayed by the accusing voice
from heaven at such a moment, he arose from his chair
and forsook the courtyard.
"That is the book that makes heretics," said the
Oxford priests to William Tyndale, the English tutor,
as they saw him earnestly studying the Greek New
Testament, just issued by Erasmus. They were
right. Tyndale found the saving grace of the Lord
Jesus in the Sacred Book. The witness of divine
truth in his soul led to the resolve : " If God spares my
life, I will; before many years have passed, cause the
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The Hand of God in History
boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scrip-
tures than the priests do." Driven to the Conti-
nent, he began in seclusion and quiet to print the New
Testament in English, shipping the books to faithful
agents in London, who scattered them abroad. He
worked as under sentence of death. But be fere he
Early English Bible translators
could be brought to the stake, the witnessing of the
Word had marked England for the Reformation.
"Rome thundered death, but Tyndale's dauntless eye
Looked in Death's face and smiled, Death standing by.
In spite of Rome, for England's faith he stood,
And in the flames he sealed it with his blood."
The agents might perish, but the witness of the
Scriptures themselves could never be suppressed.
"The Scriptures sowed the seed in England,' ' says
Wylie, "and the blood of martyrs watered it."
Brave Anne Askew, who went to the stake in
London with "an angel's countenance and a smiling
face," as an eye-witness bore record, made her last
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The 11 Two Witnesses' 1
127
confession of faith in the living Word as the ever-
lasting light: "Therefore look; what he hath said unto
me with his own mouth in his holy gospel, that have I,
with God's grace, closed up in my heart; and my full
trust is, as David saith, that it shall be a lantern to my
footsteps."
And "after the death of Anne Askew/' says Foxe,
proclamation was made (July 8, 1546) : —
First, from henceforth no man, woman, nor person, of
what estate, condition, or degree soever he or they be, 'shall,
after the last day of August next ensuing, receive, have, take,
or keep in his or their possession, the text of the New Testa-
ment of Tyndale's or CoverdaleV translation in English, nor
any other than is permitted by the act of Parliament made in
the session of the Parliament holden at Westminster in the
thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth year of His Majesty's most
noble reign; nor after the said day shall receive, have, take, or
keep, . . . — " Acts and Monuments Vol. V, page 565.
All copies of the forbidden books or portions were
ordered delivered to be " openly burned."
What a hunger for the life-giving Word is revealed
in the wonderful and yet cheering story of those days !
" God's Holy Word was prized when 'twas unsafe to
read it." Here are several items from' among many
copied out by John Foxe from just one episcopal
register, that of Longland, bishop of Lincoln (for the
years 15 18-21). Indictments were found against
Bible lovers as follows: —
Against John Barret — "because he, John Barret,
was heard in his own home, before his wife and maid
there present, to recite the epistle of St. James, which
epistle with many other things he had perfectly with-
out book."
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The Hand of God in History
"John Newman was impeached because he was
present in the house of John Barret, at the reading
of Scripture."
Wm. Haliday "was detected for having in his
custody a book of the Acts of the Apostles in English."
One Fredway and several others because they
were heard "to recite the ten commandments in their
house in English." ; -:■
John Butler, carpenter, and others, because they
sat "reading all the night in a book of Scripture."
John Littlepage, " because the said John was said
to have learned the ten commandments in English."
Robert Colins, for reading to a friend "in a cer-
tain thick book of Scripture in English."
One Durant, because, after sending a servant out
of the room where he was sitting at table with his
wife and children, he "did recite certain places unto
them out of the epistles of St. Paul and of the Gospels."
Agnes Ashford had taught one James Morden to
recite the beatitudes and several other portions of the
sermon on the mount. "These lessons the said Agnes
was bid to recite before six bishops, who straightway
enjoined and Commanded her that she should teach
those lessons no more to any man, and especially not
to her children."— 11 A cts and Monuments ," Vol, IV,
page 221.
Let these few names stand for unnumbered mul-
titudes whose names are written in heaven, who loved
and heeded the voice of the two witnesses through
the long night of papal supremacy. v
The record of this history corresponds to the
striking figure of the prophecy, which represented, the
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The "Two Witnesses"
129
" Of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the tes-
timony which they held." Rev. 6: 9.
two witnesses of Jesus bearing their testimony clothed
in sackcloth, while the apostasy trampled the truth
under its feet and persecuted the saints to the death.
It was of this time of tribulation to the church,
foretold through Daniel, that Christ said, —
"Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since
the beginning of the world to this tirne, no, nor ever shall
be. And except those days should be shortened, there should
no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall
be shortened." Matt. 24: 21, 22.
The persecutions of the 1260 years were cut short
by the rise and influence of the great Reformation of
the sixteenth century. For the elect's sake the days
were shortened. And it was by the witnessing power
of the translated Word of God that the work was done.
Rome could not hold its old-time power before the
open Bible.
Providence raised up agents who wrought simul-
taneously in many lands to give the Word to the
9
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130
The Hand of God in History
people. Professor Gaussen gives the dates of various
Bible translations : —
The whole Bible was translated into Flemish in 1526;
into German, by Luther, in 1530; into French, by Olivetan,
in 1535; into English, by Tyndale and Coverdale, in 1535;
Gutenberg, the first successful printer, whose first work
was the printing of Bibles
into Bohemian, by the United Brethren, ever since 1488;
into Swedish, by Laurentius; into Danish, in 1550; into Polish,
in 1551; into Italian, by Bruccioli, in 1532, and by Teofilo,
in 1550; into Spanish, by De Reyna, in 1569; into French
Basque, by order of the queen of Navarre, in 1571 ; into Sla-
vonian, in 1 58 1 ; into the languages of Carniola, in 1581 ; into
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The " Two Witnesses" 131
Icelandic, in 1584; into Welsh, by Morgan, in 1588; into
Hungarian,, by Caroli, in 1589; into Esthonian, by Fischer, in
1589. Thirty versions may be. counted, it is said, for Europe
alone.- 1 - 1 ' XJanon of the Holy Scriptures 7" par: 643*
With -the witnessing of the Did .and"' 1 New 'Testa-
ments in the vernacular, the tide of reform swept over
northern Europe. The hour had struck for the prom-
ised shortening of the days of papal supremacy. The
Papacy- could no more stay the movement when the
time for it came than could human hands hold back
the ocean tides.
"The entrance of thy words," says the psalmist,
"giveth light.' ' In another paragraph Professor
Gaussen records the historic and blessed results of
this entering of the word : — :
Those effects were immediate. Scarcely had the Flemish
Bible, Luther's Bible, Tyndale's Bible, Olivetan's Bible,
issued from the tomb, but directly the angel of the Refor-
mation made his powerful voice from God heard throughout
•all Europe. It came from heaven, sudden, unexpected, by
the most humble instruments, and at once the astonished
world felt itself shaken to the foundations. Everything in-
dicated an agency from on high. . At the end of a few months,
in Germany, in Switzerland, in France, in Flanders, in Eng-
land, in Scotland, and soon afterward in Italy, and even in
Spain, the sheep of Jesus had heard his voice and followed.
Thus the testimony of the two witnesses was
shaping events toward the ending of the 1260 years of
the special papal supremacy. But just at the close
of this period, according to the further prophecy of
Revelation 11, a fierce onslaught upon the divine
witnesses was to be made. This came just at the
time indicated, as the history will show.
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CHAPTER XVII
The Triumph of the Two Witnesses
The prophecy of Revelation 1 1 had said : —
"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they
shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days,
clothed in sackcloth. ... And when they shall have finished
their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottom-
less pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome
them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the
street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and
Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. . . . And the same
hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the
city fell."
The symbolism of the prophecy gives surely a
striking picture of an attack to be made upon the two*,
witnesses — the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa-
ments. It was to come just as the great prophetic
period of 1260 years of papal supremacy was ending.
And at the same time one of the ten parts of, the
mystical city of prophecy, spiritually like Sodom and
Egypt, is overturned as by earthquake.
The end of the long prophetic period, we know,
touches the years of the French Revolution. And the
French monarchy that fell in the political and social
earthquake of that time was one of the ten kingdoms
of divided Rome,^a u tenth part" of "that great city,
which reigneth over the kings of the earth.* ' Rev,
17:18.
132,
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Triumph of the Witnesses
133
That was "a great earthquake" truly. Hardly a
historian dealing with the period fails to bring into use
the phrase "the earthquake of the French 'Revolu-
tion," to describe the events of that unparalleled up-
heaval. Lamartine wrote : —
The Revolution had lasted five years. These five years
are five centuries for France. Never perhaps on this earth,
at any period since the commencement of the Christian era,
did any country produce, in so short a space of time, such
an eruption of ideas, men, natures, characters, geniuses,
talents, catastrophes, crimes, and virtues. — 11 History of the
Girondists, 11 Vol.11, pagei2Q.
And amid the frightful scenes of this time of over-
turning came the onslaught upon the two witnesses as
portrayed in the figurative language of the prophecy.
It is of interest to note that even generations be-
fore these events, early students of prophecy saw
France pointed out in this prophecy ; and looking for-
ward from amid trials and persecutions, they hoped
fondly that the events foretold meant the ending of the
Papacy.
Dr. Thomas Goodwin, of England, so wrote in
1639. Inasmuch as the earliest of the Protestant
witnesses "underwent the great heat of that morning
of persecution" in the valleys of France, he felt it
divinely appropriate that from the French kingdom,
formerly the Papacy's chief supporter, should come
''the last great stroke in the ruin of Rome."
Peter Jurieu, minister of the French church at
Rotterdam, writing some time before 1687, said: —
Now what is this tenth part of the city, which shall fall?
In my opinion, we can not doubt that 'tis France. This
kingdom is the most considerable part, or piece, of the ten
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The Hand of God in History
horns, or states, which once made up the great Babylonian
city. . . . This tenth part of the city shall fall, with respect
to the Papacy; it shall break with Rome and the Roman
religion. — 11 The Accomplishment of the Prophecies" Vol, I,
page 265 (London, 1687).
In 1742, another Bible student, John Willison, of
England, saw in this prophecy the foreshadowing of a
"marvelous revolution" in France, adding: —
However unlikely this and other prophesied evils may
appear at the time, yet the almighty hand of the only wise
God can soon bring them about when least expected.
Now, looking back upon those times, we can see
how closely events followed the course outlined in the
prophecy. As the 1260 years were drawing to a close,
during which the two witnesses were to bear their
testimony clothed -in sackcloth, a new attack was
made upon them. All along, the satanic power of
apostasy had perverted the Scriptures and sought to
keep them from the people. But now arose, as never
before in the world and never since, an organized
atheism, "out of the bottomless pit," the very abyss;
and (in intent and purpose) it set about to slay the
divine witnesses outright in this French portion or
"street of the great city."* Goaded to madness by
* On this text jurieu made comments that are interesting in view
of the fact that he wrote over a century before these events: " I can
not hinder myself from believing that this hath a particular regard
to France, which at this day is certainly the most eminent country
which belongs to the popish kingdom. Her king is called the 'eldest
son of the church,' the 4 most Christian king,' that is, the most popish,
according to the dialect of Rome. The kings of France have by
their liberalities made the popes great at this day. It is the most
flourishing state of Europe. It is the middle of the popish empire,
betwixt Italy, Spain, Germany, England, exactly as a 'street' or
place of concourse is in the middle of a 4 city.' ... In a word, 'tis
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Triumph of the Witnesses
135
the despotic rule of apostate religion, the French
revolutionists sought to annihilate religion itself.
It is not to be Wondered at that this complete un-
masking of Satan's fierce enmity to the Holy Scrip-
tures should be noted in prophecy as one of the land-
marks in the closing history of the 1260 years.
Speaking of this outbreak of atheism against all
religion, an observer and Bible student who lived at
the time wrote : : —
If we search the annals of the world, we shall not find even
a private'society or sect, much less civil community and state,
which, before our day, has in the most public manner pro-
claimed to all nations around it that there is no God, and made
that position the basis of the constitution of its government:
but in our day we not only read of it, but see it with our eyes;
and that in a manner so perfectly consonant with all its vari-
ous prophetic marks that the unprejudiced infidel (if there
be such a being) can not mistake it.—" Commentaries on
Prophecies \ Referring to the Present Time" by Joseph Galloway
{London, 1802).
French writers of the period who describe the out-
burst from beneath, unconsciously Use almost the
identical phrases of the prophecy. Lamartine speaks
of "the boundless and bottomless abyss of atheism,"
and the Abbe Burruel wrote (in 1797) of "the dark
recesses from whence it burst into being/ '
It came about according to the prophecy : —
"The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall
make war against them [the two witnesses], and shall over-
come them, and kill them. . . . And they that dwell upon
the place or ' street of thegreat eity.' And I believe that 'tis particu-
larly in France that the witnesses must remain dead, that is, that
the profession of the true religion must be utterly abolished." —
"Accomplishment of the Prophecies," Vol. II, page 247.
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136 The Hand of God in History
the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry." Rev.
11:7, 10.
All are familiar with the facts of the national
denial and repudiation of the God of the Holy Scrip-
tures and the setting up of "the worship of reason"
in France.
Hebert voiced the awful heights of blasphemy
when he declared in the National Convention: "God
does not exist. I demand that the worship of reason
be substituted in his stead/'
The Papacy had exalted itself in the place of God
through the centuries, and had wrought its perse-
cutions and iniquities in the name of God, and in
seeking to strike down oppression, deluded men struck
at the God of heaven himself.
Atheism was supreme. Not only did it turn upon
Romanists, but upon French Protestants as well, a
remnant of whom had outlived the persecutions of
the papal rule. Those who were known to stand
loyally for the religion of the Bible were marked for
death. Lorimer says: —
Indeed the Protestants who would not go the length of
the Revolutionists were subjected to~ the crudest treatment.
In the department of Gard alone the slaughter was wide-
spread. During the Reign of Terror the Protestants were as
much oppressed and persecuted as the Catholics. . . . Out
of one hundred fifty guillotined in the district of Gard [in
a given time], one hundred seventeen were Protestants. —
"Historical Sketch of the Protestant Church in France" page
531-
The warfare was carried on against every outward
badge of religion; and the Holy Scriptures were put
to the flames. Joseph Galloway, of London, watching
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"All flesh is as grass, and all the glory
of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth
away: but the word .of the Lord endureth
forever." ,
THE ANVIL OF GOD'S WORD
Last eve I stood before a blacksmith's door,
And heard the anvil ring its vesper chime;
Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
" How many anvils have you had," said I,
" To wear and batter all these hammers so ? "
" Just one," he answered; then, with twinkling
eye,
" The anvil wears the hammer out, you know."
And so the Bible, anvil of God's word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
And though the noise of Paine, Voltaire, was
heard,
The anvil is unworn, — the hammers gone.
— L.B. Cake.
137
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138 The Hand of God in History
events at the time with other Bible students, wrote in
1802: —
That the prophecy respecting the conquest and death
of the two witnesses might literally as well as figuratively be
fulfilled, the commissioners of the Convention dressed up an
ass, and loading it with the symbols of Christianity, led it
in mock procession with the Old and New Testaments tied to
its tail, and burned them to ashes amidst the blasphemous
shouts and acclamations of the deluded multitude. — " Com-
mentaries Vol. I j page 1 1 j.
Lorimer describes , a similar scene at Lyons. There
was great rejoicing over this repudiation of God and
his Holy Word. Festivals were instituted to cele-
brate the triumph of reason, and ballrooms and
theaters were crowded with those who were making
merry because the reproving witness of Christianity
had been put away. *•
The prophecy had declared the next step in the
story : —
- "And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and
nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and
shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.'*
Outside* influences, according to' this prophecy,
were to be raised up to restrain the fury let loose from
the bottomless pit. The nations round about looked
on with horror at the outbreak of lawlessness in those
days of the Terror. A league was formed by various
governments to resist the spread of disorder.
Whatever the mixed motives of this league, the
attitude of the nations caused the French leaders to
set themselves to check the rnqst frenzied excesses of
impiety. Within a few weeks after the wild scenes
attending the establishment of the worship of reason,
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Robespierre laid before the National Convention an
address to the people of Europe in reply to a manifesto
of the kings representing tbfe league. He declared: —
They represent us as a mad and idolatrous nation. They
lie. The French people and their representatives respect
all forms of religious worship and do not proscribe any. —
Record of the Convention for Dec. 5, 1793.
Thus the force of outside public opinion restrained
the hands lifted against divine revelation just as the
prophecy concerning the slaying of the two witnesses *
had foretold. The prophecy continues: —
"And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from
God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and
great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard
a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither.
And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies
beheld them. ... And the remnant were affrighted, and gave
glory to the God of heaven."
According to the constant use of the day for a year
in symbolic prophecy, this three days and a half signi-
fies three years and a half, the time assigned to this "
proscription of the two witnesses. In a history of
Europe covering this period, W. H. Hutton says: —
On Nov. 26, 1793, the convention, of which seventeen
bishops and some clergy were members, decreed the aboli- ■
tion of all religion.- — " The Age of Revolution'' page 256.
Allowing the few days necessary for this decree
to be published in the provinces, it was three and a
half years later that Camille Jordan, in the National
Convention, made his speech for complete reversal of
policy (June 15, 1797). W. M, Sloane says of this
speech: —
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140 The Hand of God in History
Declaring that religion should no longer be proscribed,
but protected, he reiterated the solemn promise that wor-
ship should be 'free in France. In his peroration he called .
for the restoration of all the outward symbols of faith. —
" French Revolution and 'Religious Reform" page 22Q.
On this speech all penal laws against religious pro-
fession and exercise were abrogated. The open Bible
was free to'bear its witness in France.
The blessed Word of God could not be destroyed.
It "liveth and abideth forever.' ' The two witnesses
were exalted only the more gloriously, even to the
heavens, before the eyes of the people. . Many be-
lievers saw in these events the fulfilment of prophecy.
Skepticism and unbelief were for the moment, at
least, affrighted.
From that same time the providence of God began
in a special manner to raise up agencies for the spread-
ing abroad of his Holy Word as never before. The
Scottish author Lorimer, who wrote not many years
after the Revolution, tells how' an overruling Provi-
dence caused the wrath of man to praise him, and
wrought " glory to the God of heaven' ' out of these
events: — ,
Infidelity, produced in a great measure by the unfaith- ,
fulness of the church, is pictured forth in blood before her eyes.
The event is sanctified to many. Thousands begin to turn
to God for safety, and to think seriously of religion. . . .
The consequence is tKat at the very time when Satan is hoping
for, and the timid are fearing, an utter overturn of true re-
ligion, there is a revival, and the gospel expands its wings
and prepares for a new flight.* It is worthy of remembrance
that the year 1792, the very year of the French Revolution,
was also the year when the Baptist Missionary Society was
formed, a society which was followed during the succeeding,
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and they the worst, years of the Revolution, with new socie-
ties of unwonted energy and union, all aiming, and aiming
successfully^ at the propagation of the gospel of Christ, both
at home and abroad. What withering contempt did the great
Head of the church thus pour upon the schemes of infidels!
And how 'did "he arouse the careless and instruct his own peo-
ple, by alarming providences, at a season when they greatly
needed such a stimulus. — "Historical Sketches of the Prot-
estant Church in France" page $22.
The ending of the great prophetic period of the
1260 years saw the Word of God exalted, and the
Papacy stricken a deadly blow, which advertised the
ending of its long reign of special supremacy. The
world entered a new era.
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CHAPTER XVIII
" The Time of the End"
" Out of the darkness of night
The world rolls into light;
It is daybreak everywhere."
Again and again the Lord had caused to pass be-
fore Daniel in vision the course of human history to
the end of time. The prophet had watched the pano-
rama of the rise and fall of empires, and Had groaned in
spirit as he was shown the great apostasy warring
against the truth. But at the end of each prophetic
outline there appeared the glorious assurance of the
final triumph of the right.
As Daniel was about to lay down the pen that had
traced these views of future events, the word of the
Lord came to him, saying: - —
"But thou, 0 Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the
book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,
and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4.
Thus Inspiration announced the opening of a new
era of enlightenment when "the time of the •end"
should come.
Those in ancient times 'who looked for "that
blessed hope," the second coming of Christ, had to
look forward toward it through the dark -night of
apostasy and trial yet to come. The apostle Paul
must needs x write to the believers at Thessalonica :
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"That day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first, and that man of sin be revealed/' 2 Thess.
2 : 3.
It was a wonderful time in the pilgrimage of the
people of God through this world when, the believers
could see the long period of papal supremacy — fore-
told in prophecy — at last behind their backs, and a
new light dawning. Then began the time of the end,
the latter days indeed, when the prophetic book was to
be unsealed, and light and knowledge spread abroad
over the world:
It is clear that with the close of the period of papal
supremacy the.world entered upon this "time of the
end." In every outline of prophecy the events of
the latter days are represented as beginning to follow
on directly after the prophetic period of the 1260 years.
Christ's outline in Matthew 24 so represents it. He
refers to the time of "great tribulation" to the church,
and says : - —
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall
the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken : and then shall appear the sign of the
Son of man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds
of heaven with power and great glory."
In the eleventh of Daniel the period of persecution
is mentioned as reaching to "the time of the end."
After predicting the setting up of the apostasy, the
prophecy describes the persecution of the people of
God: —
"They shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity,
and by spoil, many days. . . . And some of them of under-
c
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The Hand of God in History
standing shall fall to try them, and to purge, and to make
them white, even to the time of the end : because it is yet for
a time appointed." Verses 33-35.
Thus the age following the appointed period of
persecution, the 1260 years of % papal supremacy, is
given the specific designation of " the time of the end."
"The time of the end," then, we may say, began
in the last decade of the eighteenth century. The
prophetic period closed amid the scenes of the French
Revolution, culminating in that stroke by the sword
of France at Rome, in 1798, advertising to the world
that the Papacy had received a "deadly wound."
And if the last decade of the eighteenth century
closed one long and dark chapter in the history, it
opened a new and brighter one, a chapter of fulfilling
signs of the coming of the Lord. To the new era then
opening belong the angel* s words to Daniel, which we
repeat: —
"Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time
of the end : many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased."
It is a remarkable declaration ; and in a remarkable
way the events centering around the opening years of
"the time of the end" bear witness to a divine hand
very definitely moving forward the cause of truth on
earth in harmony with the voice ,of the prophecy.
There has come in this new era exactly what the
angel said would come : —
1. An unsealing of the book of prophecy — a
special opening up of prophetic truths to the under-
standing.
2. A running (or searching) to and fro among men
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— a world-wide awakening, with great diffusion of the
light of the Word, and increase of knowledge.
It is not sufficient to look upon the fulfilments of
prophecy simply as proofs of the inspiration of the
Scriptures written in ancient times. It is true that
the testimony of history to the fulfilment of prophecy
is an infallible proof that holy men of old spoke by the
Holy Ghost. But the great aim of the prophecies is to
reveal the course of development on earth in the great
controversy between truth and error, to forewarn and
teach concerning present duties and dangers, and to
cause men to see that the same God who spoke to the
prophets so long ago is still, in every time, the living
God, doing things on earth before men's eyes; so that
all may find in him a present helper and savior.
"I am God," he says, "and there is none else; I.
am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand.
... I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass ; I
have purposed it, I will also do it." Isa. 46:9-11.
In the study of every crisis in the history of fulfil-
ling prophecy we are watching the living God doing
things on earth. And now, with the coming of the
last great era that is to reach to the end of time, we
shall see the arm of the Lord indeed made bare in the
sight of all the nations. Thank God for the "sure
word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take
heed, as unto a light that shine th in a dark place, until
the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts."
"Day promised long, now soon to dawn,
When sin's dark night of death is gone!"
10
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The Hand of God in History
The Book of Prophecy Unsealed
x First, we may note that by the events of the last
decade of the eighteenth century, when the period of
papal supremacy was closing, Bible students were
stirred up to give special study to the prophecies.
This revival of study of the books of Daniel and the
Revelation led to a great awakening, in the years
following, on the subject of the second advent.
All through the centuries believers had recognized
the Papacy as the apostasy, or falling away, of the
prophetic scriptures. They laid hold eagerly of the
assurances- of prophecy that the papal supremacy
would some day be broken , and that soon thereafter
the -Lord would come. But their view of the time
prophecies was necessarily obscure and indefinite in
those far days.
Luther declared before his death: —
I persuade myself verily that the day of judgment will
not be absent full three hundred years more. God will not,
can not, suffer this wicked world much longer.—" Table Talk. 11
Somewhat over a century later the French preacher
and student of prophecy, Jurieu, wrote: —
We are not to look upon the prophecies as absolutely
impenetrable. We must seek, that we may find ; we must
ask, that we may receive: we must humbly and devoutly
knock at the gate of heaven, that it may be opened to us.
... I may say that I did not out of choice apply myself
to the study of the prophecies: I found myself forced to it by a
kind of violence, which I could not resist. — "Accomplish-
ment of Prophecies, 11 part 1, page 3 {1687).
He explains that it was the " cruel and horrible
persecution, which at this day makes such terrible
ravage and desolation in the church/ ' — * the perse-
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cutions in France following the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes,— that drove him to the study of the
prophecies to find consolation and some assurance
that the rule of the Papacy would soon be broken.
As the end of the period of papal supremacy was draw-
ing nearer, devout hearts were the more stirred up to
look earnestly into the prophecies. The time was
approaching when Daniel's book, was to be unsealed.
Sir Isaac Newton, called " the greatest of philoso-
phers, ". who died in 1727, wrote: —
Then,, saith Daniel, "many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased.". . . An angel must fly through
the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel to preach to
all nations, before Babylon falls and the Son of man reaps
his harvest. . .. . 'Tis therefore a part of this prophecy,, that
it should not be understood before the last age of the world;
and therefore it makes for the credit of the prophecy that it is
not yet understood. But if the last age, the age of opening
these things, be now approaching, as by the great successes of
late interpreters it seems to be, we have more encouragement
than ever to look into these things. If the general preaching
of the gospel be approaching, it is to lis and to our posterity
that those words mainly belong: In the time of the end the
wise shall understand, but none of the wicked shall -under-
stand. . . . " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear
the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are
written therein." — "Observations on the Apocalypse," chap,
1 {London, 1733).
John Wesley, who died in 1 788, just before the out-
break of the French Revolution, urged the earnest
study of prophecy, because he believed that important
predictions were "on the point of being fulfilled."
Commenting on the exhortation of the first chapter of
Revelation, "Blessed is he that readeth," he said of
many preachers in his day: — #
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148 The Hand of God in History
They inquire after anything rather than this [the under-
standing of the prophecies], as if it were written, Happy is he
that doth not read this prophecy.. Nay, but happy is he that
readeth, and they that hear and keep the words thereof:
especially at this time when so considerable a part of them is
on the point of being fulfilled. — " Notes on the New Testament. 1 '
Wesley's rebuke and exhortation were timely, as
we can now see so clearly. Decisive events were at
hand, marking the close of the prophetic period of the
1 260 years and the opening of a new era. While many
gave no heed to the "sure word of prophecy" in con-
sidering the meaning of these things, others recog-
nized the fulfilment of what God had spoken. An
English secular writer of that period, John Adolphus,
bears testimony to this fact in the following com-
ment : —
The downfall of the papal government fin 1798], by what-
ever means effected, excited perhaps less sympathy than that
of any other in Europe: the errors, the oppressions, the
tyranny of Rome over the whole Christian world, were remem-
bered with bitterness; many rejoiced, through religious antip-
athy, in the overthrow of a church which they considered
as idolatrous, though attended with the immediate triumph
of infidelity; and many saw in these events the accomplish-
ment of prophecies, and the exhibition of signs promised in the
most mystical parts of the Holy Scriptures.— "History of
France From ij go- 1802" Vol. II, page 37 q (London, 1803).
- Thus with the coming of "the time of the end"
there came an opening up of fulfilling prophecy to the
view of earnest searchers after truth. From this time
on the Bible doctrine of the premillennial second ad-
vent of Christ was more widely understood ; and mul-
titudes in Europe and America saw that the proph-
ecies pointed to the near coming of the Lord. With
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the passing of a few decades, there came, in 1844, the
ending of another great prophetic period of Daniel's
prophecy, the 2300 years (of chapter 8). This time
prophecy fixed the beginning of the investigative
judgment in the heavenly sanctuary, and marked the
rise of the definite advent movement of Rev. 14:
6-14, proclaiming this judgment-hour come, and call-
ing all men to turn from the traditions of the Papacy
and to "keep the commandments of God, and the
faith of Jesus." This is the movement and proc-
lamation for which Seventh-day Ad ventists stand.
In the light of latter-day events, the great out-
lines of prophecy in the book of Daniel constitute a
plain and thrilling message for the hour. They deal
with problems that we face to-day. What was ob-
scure in olden time is now an open book. The testi-
mony of history to the fulfilment of prophecy is seen
to be clear and unmistakable ; and thus the little book
that was sealed unto "the time of the end" now lifts
its voice to bear witness to the living God v in the
heavens, who knew the end from the beginning, and
who now, in this generation, is rapidly bringing to
pass the events that are to usher in the day of God and
the eternal triumph.
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CHAPTER XIX
Increase of Knowledge in " the Time of the End"
"Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased." Dan. 12:4.
Ask any one what age of the world is best de-
scribed by these words, and he will be constrained to
say that they exactly fit this age of ours. It is doubt-
ful if the characteristic features of the nineteenth
century and onward could be expressed by eleven
words any more clearly.
And 2 ,500 years ago the angel used these words to
describe "the time of the end," the latter days.
Following the long reign of papal supremacy, the
light of clearer knowledge was to spread to and fro
through the earth.
Students tell us that the thought in the Hebrew
phrase is not primarily of a running or traveling about,
so much as of a "searching" to and fro; the time of
the end was to be a time of searching for light and
truth, of the opening up of the Word of God, with in-
creasing knowledge and enlightenment. This cer-
tainly includes also the idea of the literal running to
and fro through all the earth in the latter days; for,
as many scriptures show, this increasing knowledge
was to be spread through all nations, and "all the ends
of the earth" were to see the salvation of our God:
The true meaning of the developments of the last
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I5i
"wonderful century"; which have made for general
enlightenment and the opening up of the world, can be
read only in the light of prophecy. We can see events
from. afar shaping to this time.
The Reformation of the sixteenth century had be-
gun to " shorten" the days of papal persecution.
The Word of God was given anew to European peoples.
One error after another by which the Papacy had
made void the Word was seen and discarded. Step
by step, in successive reform movements, the way of
truth was being retraced toward the primitive faith
of New Testament times.
• It was surely no accident that the dawn of the
Reformation era in Europe was also the dawn of the
era of geographical discovery. The time had come
when not only the truth of God was to be revealed
again to men, but the way into all the world was to be
prepared for the final work of spreading the knowledge
of truth among all peoples.
The progress of geographical discovery fits in
closely with the progress of the missionary idea.
Down to the end of the fifteenth century Europe knew
little more of the world than was known in the early
centuries. In fact, by the Moslem invasion, adjacent
parts of Africa and Asia, formerly better known, had
been largely obscured to European vision. But at
the very time when Reformation truth was preparing
to -spread its wings of light in Europe, an impelling
force in providence moved the hearts of navigators to
undertake the discovery of the world. The following
is a brief schedule of the early voyages: —
1492 — Columbus discovers the New World,
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152 The Hand of God in History
1493 — Columbus's second voyage, discovering
Jamaica.
1497 — Vasco da Gama rounds Africa.
Representative of the Aztecs, whose empire in Central
America and Mexico was conquered by Cortes
1497-98 — The Cabots, from England, find the
coast of North America,
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1499 — Vespucci discovers South America.
1502 — Columbus on his fourth voyage reaches
the mainland, in Central America.
151 9 — Cortes conquers Mexico.
15 1 9 — Magellan sails, to pass through the Magel-
lan Strait and into the South Pacific, being slain in
1 52 1 in the Philippine Islands.
1 577-79 — Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the
globe, touching the Pacific coast of America from
San Francisco to the Columbia River.
Columbus felt upon him the pressure of a divine
commission. Irving says in his life of the discoverer :—
He looked upon himself as standing in the hand of heaven,
chosen from among men for the accomplishment of its high
purpose; he read, as he supposed, his contemplated discovery
foretold in Holy Writ, and shadowed forth darkly in the
mystic revelations of the prophet. — Book 1, chap. 5.
1
A poet has represented his feeling and conviction
in the lines, —
"I seek not wealth, I only seek to know.
I urged the gold of India as the bait
For those who find no profit but in gold.
Mayhap my wrist shall feel the bite of chains,
And on my head the curse of fools may break,^-
For that I prove them fools, — - yet what to me?
Mine are rewards that they can never give;
And in my soul a peace they can not know.
I saw the hand of God blaze through the sky; -
I heard the voice of God in all the winds;
The hand wrote, Follow! and the voice rang, Go!
And I obeyed the vision and the, dream."
After having discovered the New World — though
he never knew that it was not the Indies — - Columbus
said: — *
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The Hand of God in History
In the execution of my enterprise to the Indies, human
reason, mathematics, and maps of the world have served me
nothing. It has accomplished simply that which the prophet
Isaiah had predicted; that before the end of the world all the
prophecies should have their accomplishment. — Humboldt's
"Examen Critique/ 1 Vol. I, pages 15-19.
However blameworthy for the misfortunes that
came upon him in . his later years, Columbus at any
rate found comfort amid his reverses in the conviction
that he had been an agent of Providence, helping to
prepare the way for the end of the age.
Many minds in those days were evidently turned
toward Daniel's prophecy of the time of increasing
knowledge. The learned Francis Bacon (1561. to
1626) saw hope of the coming era in the awakening
influences of that age of world-discovery. The " Cam-
bridge Modern History " sums up his view: — ■
There was confirmation for such hopes in Holy Scripture.
The anticipation of the Chaldean seer that in the latest times
many should run to and fro, and knowledge be increased, he
interpreted as foreshadowing the opening of five sixths of the
• globe, hitherto closed, to man's travel, study, and reinvigor-
ated powers of reasoning. — Vol. /, chap. 2.
Certain it is that the expansion of the world was
used of Providence as an agency in expanding and
awakening the minds of men, preparatory to the new
era that was to follow.
The seeds of a new order of growth were planted
ill the soil of the New World in the days of settlement
that followed the period of discovery. One writer
says : — -
Diverse and seemingly incongruous as were the nation-
alities represented in the colonies,.— Dutch, French, German,
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Swedish, Scotch, Irish, English, — they had all imbibed,
either by experience or inheritance, something of the spirit of
personal independence, and especially of religious liberty.
Gustavus Adolphus designed his colony of Swedes for the
benefit of "all oppressed Christendom." Penn, the Quaker,
established Pennsylvania as "a free colony for all mankind,"
where the settlers "should be governed by laws of their own
making." The first charter of the Jerseys — which were
George Washington
largely peopled by Quakers and Scotch and Irish Presbyte-
rians — declared that " no person shall at any time, in any way,
or on any pretense, be called in question, or in the least pun-
ished or hurt, for opinion in religion." And Oglethorpe's
colony of Georgia was founded to be a refuge for "the dis-
tressed people of Britain, and the persecuted Protestants of
Europe;" then the German Moravians settled side by side
with the French Huguenot and the Scotch Presbyterian under
the motto, "We toil not for ourselves, but for others." —
Thompson 's " United States as a Nation," page 31.
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156 The Hand of God in History
By the end of the eighteenth century a new nation
was springing into vigorous life across the sea, founded
on the principles of civil and religious liberty, and
exerting a powerful influence for a "new order of
things." All the time the forces of progress and re-
Benjamin Franklin
form in Europe were struggling toward the same
ideals.
According to the prophecy, "the time of the end"
began at the close of the period of papal supremacy,
in the end of the eighteenth century. That was a
turning-point in history. The minds of men were
aroused to unwonted activity. The old autocratic
order was broken, and the era of constitutionalism
and liberty set in. The Papacy, with the closed
Bible, stood for the old order. The open Bible and
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the spirit of genuine Protestantism stood for the new.
The great evangelical movement under Wesley,
Whitefield, and others, in the latter half of that passing
century, had- awakened multitudes. It was a re-
vival among the masses that made for a new life,
and stimulated the desire for education and social
betterment. The open Bible had yet freer course;
and wherever that agency of heaven goes, enlighten-
ment and progress follow.
All influences conspired to make the opening of the
nineteenth century the opening of an era of enlighten-
ment. And back of all uplifting influences, and over-
ruling all, was the Lord, true to his word, inspiring
and leading, and ushering in the time of the prophecy,
the era of increase of knowledge. As regards the
marvelous increase of general knowledge, the late
Dr. A. T. Pierson summed up the facts as follows: ■ —
The nineteenth century is conceded to be a century of
wonders. Judged by human progress along the highway of
scientific discovery and invention, and by the general widen-
ing out of the horizon of human knowledge, it is not only un-
surpassed, but it leaves all previous centuries far behind.
Mr. Gladstone thought that a single decade of years might be
found within its limits during which the race had advanced
farther than during five hundred decades preceding. This
estimate is probably not an exaggeration; but, if so, what
must be true of the whole century! — "Modern Mission
Century" page 41.
Another writer says of the development that came
with the nineteenth century: —
It is something more than a merely normal" growth or
natural development. 1 1 has been a gigantic tidal wave of hu-
man ingenuity and resource, so stupenduous in its magnitude,
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The Hand of God in History
so complex in its diversity, so profound in its thought, so
fruitful in its wealth, so beneficent in its results, that the mind
is strained and embarrassed in its efforts to expand to a
full appreciation of it. Indeed, the period seems a grand
Mr. Gladstone thought that a single decade of years might be
found within the century in which greater progress in general knowl-
edge had been made than in the five hundred decades preceding
climax of discovery rather than an increment of growth. . . .
The negative conditions of that period extend into such an
appalling void that we stop short, shrinking from the thought
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of what it would mean to modern civilization to eliminate
from its life those potent factors of its existence.— Edward .
M. Byon,. M.~Aj - • •
Two millenriiums bef ore , the prophecy had pointed I .
to til e Closing years of the eighteenth eenturyy and had
said thatrtrhen would : be ushered in an age of increase
of knowledge. Well we know -"however, that it is riot
primarily increase in merely human knowledge that
the prophecy foreshadowed. The wonderful increase
in human .knowledge, the progress in the arts and
sciences, and the inventions that characterize the age
are all providential factors; for every means of bring-
ing to men light and information and for spreading
knowledge through the world is laid under tribute of
service in God's one great purpose. That purpose
is the salvation of men, and the ending of the course
of sin and apostasy on earth.
When divine prophecy speaks of increasing knowl-
edge, it means first of all increased knowledge of the
Lord, the true wisdom, without which the compassing
of all the range of learning is but loss. And in the
opening up of all the world, and the spread of general '
education and enlightenment, we plainly see the
providential working of the Lord in preparing the way
for the gospel message to reach all nations and tribes
and tongues in these last days.
The study of fulfilling prophecy "in the time of the
end" leads us directly to a survey of the spreading
abroad of the knowledge of God and of his Word by
the wonderful achievements of the 1 ' century of modern
missions/' ,
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CHAPTER XX
The Era of Missions
The spreading "to and fro" of increasing knowl-
edge of God, by the world-wide proclamation of the
gospel, was to be the characteristic feature of the
latter days.
The history answers to the prophecy. The last
decade of the eighteenth century, which opened "the
time of the end," opened also the "era of modern
missions."
In his "Hundred Years of Missions," Dr. D. L.
Leonard says : — - '
The closing years of the eighteenth century constitute
in the history of Protestant missions an epoch indeed, since
they witnessed nothing less than a revolution, a renaissance,
an effectual and manifold ending of the old, a substantial
inauguration of the new. It was then that for the first time
since the apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general
missionary zeal and activity. Beginning in Great Britain,
it soon spread to the Continent and across the Atlantic. It
was no mere push of fervor, but a mighty tide set in, which
from. that day to this has been steadily rising and spreading.
Hitherto all similar undertakings had been isolated, spas-
modic, and lacking in reliable support. Spurts of vigor were
certain to end in fatal relapse. Except in the case of the
noble Moravian work, every attempt had thus sooner or later
come to failure.. But from this time forward it is no more
to be after this discouraging fashion. Or the fact may be
stated in this way: Hitherto the churches, ministers and peo-
ple together, had been indifferent to the spiritual condition
1 60
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The Era of Missions
161
of the pagan world. Whatever had been done was the
achievement of some single earnest soul, or some monarch,
and usually in that case politics entered largely as a directing
force. Only a little circle had been aroused and moved to co-
operate, while all about was a dead mass of apathy. And so,
naturally, the project ended with the originator. But with
Carey was ushered in a more excellent way. A few elect
spirits were touched, and from them the flame was diffused
to Christians of other names in all the dissenting churches
and to the great establishment as well; that is, to the most
intelligent and spiritual in each.
It was the plain people, the masses, that now began to
pray and give and go, not tarrying in the least for king or
prelate to noise the signal. Or this form of expression will
fairly well complete the setting forth of the change which now
transpired, so radical and sweeping as to amount to a revolu-
tion. Here and now was the beginning of missionary or-
ganization. From henceforth as never before, emotion,
desire, holy purpose, were to be incarnated in constitutions
and by-laws, in memberships and anniversaries, in treasuries
and systematic giving, the continual offering of littles by each
one in great multitudes. And Carey's Baptist society, which
originated in his brain, was the model for the scores and hun-
dreds which followed after. Thus was ushered in the happy
day of voluntary, societies, organizations sustained by such
as are interested in the promotion of the objects sought.
And the year of grace 1792 is annus mirabilis, the famous
date from which to reckon backward and forward. Well
may it stand side by side with 44 A. D., when the Holy Ghost
said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where-
unto I have called them:" or 53 A. p., when in vision Paul was
bidden to lay the foundations of the gospel in Europe. - What-
ever has been accomplished since can be traced to forces. which
began to operate a hundred years ago. — Pages 69, yo.
The date 1792 (May 31) marks the famous meeting
in the back parlor of Widow Wallis's cottage, in
Kettering, England, when William Carey, Andrew
11
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162
The Hand of God in History
Fuller, and a few others organized the Baptist Mis-
sionary Society, which was the pioneering and in-
spiring agency in the great revival.
There was a compelling power upon Carey that
would not allow him to cease his importunity that the
time had come to begin the work. Dr. George Smith
has written: —
Even Andrew Fuller, in 1787, replied to Carey's urgency
for immediate action: "If the Lord should make windows in
heaven, then might this thing be." The fact, published by
his contemporaries in 1793, and verified by all the history
since, is thus expressed by Dr. Ryland, another unbeliever in
immediate duty, like Fuller: "I believe God himself infused
into the mind of Carey that solicitude for the salvation of the
heathen which can not be fairly traced to any other source."
— 11 Short History of Christian Missions" page 160.
It was not because of their numbers, or of their
resources, that the members of this little band were
able to start a movement that has marked an era.
Unbelievers of the world and of the church scoffed
hilariously at the notion of a few poor men — " a nest
of consecrated cobblers,' ' they were called — setting
out to proclaim the gospel to all the world. But ''the
time of the end" was at hand, the fulness of time for
the beginning of the work, and the living God gave
power to these feeble efforts to compass the launching
of a mighty world movement.
There was something decisive done in the decade
of history that held those events closing the prophetic
period of papal supremacy and those marking the
opening of the era of increase of knowledge. The
two orders of events present striking contrasts. Mr.
Wv Canton, of the British Bible Society, says: —
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The Era of Missions
163
In November, "1793, when the Goddess of Reason, gar-
landed with oak leaves, was being enthroned on the high altar
of Notre Dame, William Carey, the devoted Baptist mission-
ary, was sailing within sight of the coast of Bengal. In
the following year, when Robespierre, in the ghastly cox-
combry^ of sky-blue coat, white stockings, and gold shoe-
buckles, was giving legal sanction to the "existence of the
Supreme Being," and to " that consolatory principle of the im-
mortality of the soul," Samuel Marsden, the apostle of New
Zealand, had begun his labors among the convicts of Botany
Bay. One scheme of Christian benevolence took form after
another. — " History of the British and' Foreign Bible Society"
Vol. 7, page 2.
The Baptist Missionary Society (1792) was fol-
lowed by the London Missionary Society (1795) and
the Church [of England] Missionary Society (1799).
Within a few years (1810) the first American mission-
ary society was formed. * ' This was the beginning
of the missionary' age," said the late Professor War-
neck, of Halle, the historian of missions.
One incident illustrates the powerful revolution
of sentiment wrought by the Holy Spirit as the time
of God's appointment came. Scotland has led all
lands in missionary fervor. But in the Scottish
Church Assembly, in 1796, a proposal to go to the
heathen with the gospel was met by the introduction
of a resolution stating that —
to spread abroad the -knowledge of the gospel among bar-
barians and heathen nations seems to be highly preposterous,
in so far as philosophy and learning must in the nature of
things take the precedence; and that while there, remains at
home a single individual without the means of religious knowl-
edge, to propagate it abroad would be improper and absurd.
Then it was, we are told, that old Dr. Erskine
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164
The Hand of God in History
cried out, "Mr. Moderator, rax me that Bible!" and
he read to the assembly the great commission, "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature.' ' Out of the incident grew the beginning of
the awakening in Scotland. - ......
So with the predicted hour came the missionary
movement to spread increasing knowledge through all
the earth. It brought revival also in the home lands.
In 1797 it was written-of England: "Christians in
every corner of the land are meeting in a regular
manner, and pouring out their souls for God's blessing
on the world." From. Basel, over on the Continent,
German believers sent the message to England : —
It is like the dawn promising the beautiful day after the
dark night. It is the beginning of a new epoch for the king-
dom of God on earth. Your undertaking and its success fills
our hearts with joy and our eyes with tears. . . . You call
on the wise and good of every nation to take interest in the
work and bear a part. Such a call was never heard of before.
It was reserved for the close of the eighteenth century to be
distinguished by it. — "Hundred Years of Missions," page. 91.
Geographical Discovery
Just as the call of missions was meeting a response
in Christendom, there came also into the hearts of
men a new determination to open up the countries
of the world which had been discovered, and to lay
bare the secrets of unknown lands and peoples. This
desire to find new avenues of commerce, and the nat-
ural spirit of adventure and love of learning, were
factors, under providential overruling, in the mission-
ary advance. .
. To many an explorer, and martyr to science and
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The Era of Missions 165
The "Battle Hymn of the Missionary Movement"
*7cr£&i<£> ^^Le^y ^Vi^^a***^
abuts ^r^^
C^Asptd ^trrpty 6*?r/~rzr gd^cuc^J
%/%a£ tbfty^ ^^^^^ ^7-^^/
y&vv&^&v - £*^j ***** f t*^"'
The first two verses of the ^missionary hymn, reproduced from
the manuscript copy exactly as it left Reginald Heber's hands one
evening in 18 19. The author later became Bishop Heber, and
served as a missionary in India.
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1 66 The Hand of God in History
the extension of human knowledge, might be applied
the word spoken by the Lord to Cyrus: " I girded thee, .
though thou hast not known me : that they may know
from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that
there is none beside me." Others have been con-
scious of the divine impulse upon them to press on and
on into the regions beyond, blazing many a trail along
which later the gospel missionary passed.
There was Mungo Park, for instance, the Scot-
tish surgeon in the service of the African Society,
seeking the route to Timbuktu for the benefit of trade.
When at last he reached the upper Niger, flowing east-
ward, "broad as the Thames at Westminster/ ' he fell
on his knees and 1 'gave fervent thanks to God," who
had granted him success in his perilous journeyings. *
And after two years he returned, in 1797, having
collected, it is said, "more facts as to the ^geography,
manners, and customs of the country than all pre-
ceding travelers." And these were the facts that be-
gan to give West Africa a place in the thoughts of the
awakening church at home.
The journal of Captain Cook's voyages among the
Pacific islands (1768-79) was one of the influences
that deepened William Carey's conviction that the
time had come when not alone explorers, but mis-
sionaries of the cross of Christ, must be out in the
wilds, telling the good news among the heathen
peoples.
Speaking of Africa during the later years of the
eighteenth century, Jules Verne wrote : ■ —
During the eighteenth century Africa was literally be-
sieged by travelers. Explorers endeavored to penetrate into
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The Era of Missions
167
it from every side. More than one succeeded in reaching the
interior, only to meet with repulse or death. This discovery
of the secrets of this mysterious continent was reserved fcr
our own age, when the unexpected fertility of -its resources
has astonished the civilized world.
The newly started missionary movement was
knocking and prying at hitherto closed doors. Just
a glance at the story must suffice to suggest how that
early period witnessed the opening of the outer doors
and the gaining of the first footholds.
India. — When Carey landed in Calcutta, in 1793,
he found missionaries decidedly not wanted. British
India was then a possession of the East India Com-
pany. "One of the company's directors said that he
would rather see a band of devils than a band of
missionaries in India. From 1792 to 1812 religious
and educational labor was prohibited/' But an open
door was found in the little settlement of Serampore
(on the river above Calcutta), which providentially
had been left under the Danish government.
Here Carey and his associates planted the mission
which for many years. was "the model and stimulus
of almost all others." In 1800 the first convert of the
mission from Hinduism was baptized in the Hooghly
River, one of the mouths of the sacred Ganges.*
Next year the Serampore press issued the New Testa-
* This first convert was Kirsha Chundra Pal, and he became a
valiant helper to the missionaries. He was the author of the hymn, —
v "O thou, my soul, forget no more
The Friend who all thy sorrows bore;
Let every idol be forgot,
But, O my soul, forget him not."
To us it is of interest to know that a large family directly de-
scended from this man who turned from idols to serve the living God,
are Seventh-day Adventists, and helpers in our . mission in Bengal.
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1 68 The Hand of God in History
ment in Bengali; and thus the opening of the new-
century saw the work of missions permanently estab-
lished in India.
China — Here, too, as the end of the eighteenth
century came, there were only barriers in view. Dr.
Leonard says of China's policy at this period: —
It was largely through mortal fear of invasion and con-
quest that »it was decided at length to close and bar every
gate. . . . All trade with foreigners was to be confined strictly
to Canton, and to a, tract fifteen acres outside the walls. ...
It was a capital offense to teach the language to any "out-
side barbarian." '
But in this time of missionary revival, hearts were
praying for" a way into China. In 1804 Robert
Morrison was under appointment in London; and in
1807 he landed in Canton, having sailed via New
York, because passage to a missionary was refused in
the ships of the East India Company.
"So then, Mr. Morrison," the New York shipping
agent had airily said, "you really expect to make an
impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese em-
pire?" "No, sir," Morrison quickly replied; "but
I expect that God will." The expectation was real-
ized. With many a token of providential care, the
missionary acquired the forbidden language, and by
his labors in Bible translation and the compilation of a
dictionary, was used of God in laying the foundation
for Protestant missions in China.
Morrison had believed that the living God would
open even China's doors as the hand of faith knocked
for entrance. "Some pious people," he said, "justify
their apathy concerning the inhabitants of the eastern
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The Era of Missions
169
limit of Asia, by saying they perceive no opening; they
see no movement. As if the dry bones were to move
before they were breathed upon! as if the door were
to be opened before any herald of salvation knocked
at it!" He did not live to see the doors flung really
open; but the hour came at last, and to-day every
missionary in China thanks the guiding Providence
Two of China's deities
Africa. — Treating the subject of modern missions
in Africa chronologically, the late Dr. James Stewart
(in "Dawn in the Dark Continent") divided the
history into three periods, thus: —
1. The Early Period — from 1790 to about 1840.
2. The Middle Period — from 1840 to i860.
3. The Recent Period — from i860 to 1900.
The early period, it will be noted, opens with the
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170
The Hand of God in History
closing decade of the eighteenth century. A single
Moravian missionary had earlier founded a station
seventy miles from Cape Town, in 1736. But his
work met bitter opposition, and was abandoned a few
years later, when he was deported, charged with being
" a great Hottentot converter." In 1792 the Mora-
vians renewed their work, and in 1799 British mis-
sionary effort began, since which - has come the ex-
tension of missions into so many parts of Africa.
The South Seas. — The London Missionary Society
directed its first efforts to the South Pacific. In 1796
the first mission ship, the "Duff," sailed from London
for the Society Islands. As the ship started down the
Thames toward the ^sea, the thirty missionaries on
board sang the hymn " Jesus, at thy command I launch
into the deep." If the inspiration of the missionary
movement had been a merely, human impulse, the
practical difficulties in the way and the powerless-
ness of all human effort before a single unconverted
soul, would quickly have halted the advance. Of the
launching of this South Sea effort and its early history,
Dr. Leonard says :. —
The tide of enthusiasm ran high, and great things for
the gospel were .expected soon and easily to be brought to
pass. But bitter disappointment, and sorrow, and pain were
in store; for the better part of two decades the two words
failure and waste seemed to sum up the results, though as we
now can plainly discern, the results ( of that undertaking,
direct and indirect, near and more remote, were so various
and so great that the ship which bore the. pioneers to their
destination may fittingly be classed with the "Mayflower,"
and even with the three caravels which some three hundred
years before put forth, westward from Palos. — "Hundred
Years of Missions " page 250.
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The Era of Missions
171
Thus, as "the time of the end" came, there was
sent of God a distinct evangelical and missionary
revival. Barriers were broken through. Doors
Tree-houses, island of New Guinea
" From the uttermost part of the earth." "And the isles
shah wait for His law."
double-locked to shut out the messengers of light
were thrown open ; there was a searching and a running
to and fro, and knowledge was increased; and the
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172 The Hand of God in History
missionary movement then set going is spreading still
into all the world. °, ^ : — . ..; ;■. ..?■ *.;.
"The healing fount that in Ezekiel's "dream
Forth issued from the temple's sacred sill —
Behold it now no more a slender rill,
But far and wide an overflowing stream,
That doth each heathen land with hope and
gladness fill."
Digitized by the Center for Adventist Research
CHAPTER XXI
The Era of Bible Circulation
The Word of God is the fount of knowledge; and
the era of increase of knowledge has been the time of
increasing circulation of the Bible.
Writing in the early years of the nineteenth cen-
tury, an English student of prophecy said: —
The stupendous endeavors of one gigantic community to
convey the Scriptures in every language to every part of
the globe may well deserve to be considered as an eminent
sign even of these eventful times. Unless I be much mis-
taken, such endeavors are preparatory to the final grand
diffusion of Christianity; which is the theme of so many in-
spired prophets, and which can not be very far distant in the
present day. — G. S. Faber, D. D., "Dissertation on the
Prophecies" Vol. II, page 406 (i 8 14). .
The reference was to the British and Foreign Bible
Society, the pioneer of all the Bible societies.
It was during those pivotal years of the closing
eighteenth century, as the time of the end came, that
the direct agencies were being moved upon for the
founding of the Bible society work. How continually
the Lord uses the weak things of this world for the
accomplishment of mighty results! Surely it was as
the sowing of the grain of mustard-seed, this planting
of Bible-distributing organizations that have grown
into all the world, and given the Word of God to the
millions.
173
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174 The Hand of God in History
The story begins with a little" Welsh girl's ques-
tion, —
N "Why haven't we a Bible of our own, mother?"
11 Because Bibles are scarce, child, and we're too
poor to pay the price of one."
Two miles from Mary Jones's home lived a farmer
who owned a Bible. She secured permission to call,
and read its pages now and then. The story of the
first visit we must repeat : —
The good farmer's wife went away, leaving Mary alone
with a Bible for the first time in her life.
Presently the child raised the napkin, and, folding it
neatly, laid it to one side. ■
Then, with trembling hands, she opened the Book, opened
it at the fifth chapter of John, and her eyes caught these
words, " Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have
eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."
"I will! I will!" she cried, feeling as if the words were
spoken directly to her by some divine voice. "I will search
and learn all I can. O, if I had but a Bible of my own!"
And this wish, this sigh for the rare and coveted treasure,
was the key-note to a grand chorus of glorious harmony which,
yeafs after, spread in volume until it rolled in waves of sound
over the whole earth. Yes, that yearning in a poor child's
heart was destined to be a means of light and knowledge to
millions of souls in the future. — " Mary Jones and Her Bible, 1 1
pages $8, 59. '
Now the girl began to work untiringly to gather
money to buy a Welsh Bible of her own. It was in
the year 1800, after six years of saving, that she made
the barefoot journey of over twenty-five miles to the
town of Bala, with the price of the book in her pocket.
With glowing heart, she told her story and made her
request of the minister, Mr. Thomas Charles, who had
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Era of Bible Circulation
175
secured the last copies of the only Welsh edition, then
to be had. "Really," Mr.. Charles explained to the
local elder, a friend of Mary's pastor, " I am very sorry
that she should have come from such a distance; for
I fear, indeed, that I can not spare her a copy." The
only copies left had been spoken for.
Poor Mary ! When she heard his answer, her disappoint-
ment w,as so great that she burst into tears, and sobbed as
H her heart would break. Mr. Charles was "deeply moved,
and tears filled his eyes, partly in sorrow for his country,
Where the Word of God was so scarce, and partly in pity for
Mary. He could not bear that she should return home in
grief and disappointment. "You shall have a Bible," he
said, and he gave her one of the reserved copies. Mary's tears
were now tears of joy as she paid for her treasure. "Well,
David Edward," y said Mr. Charles, turning to the elder,
who had been weeping too, "is not this very sad — that there
should be such a scarcity of Bibles in the country, and that v
this poor child should have walked some twenty-eight or
thirty miles to get a copy? If something can be done to
alter this state of things, I will not rest till it is accomplished."
— W. Canton, in "Little Hands and God's Book," page 22.
Two years later Mr. Charles was in London plead-
ing for a society to supply Welsh Bibles. The secre-
tary of the Religious Tract Society, Joseph Hughes,
said: " Surely a society might be formed for the pur-
pose. But if for Wales, why not for the kingdom?
Why not for the world?" Thus the idea was out;
and in 1804 the first Bible society was formed. A
small committee met for the purpose in the counting-
room of the Riverside commercial warehouse of
Old Swan Stairs, by London Bridge. Then a public
meeting was called to launch the enterprise. The
secretary of the London Missionary Society, Mr.
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The Hand of God in History
George Burder, who was present, entered in his diary
for that day the prophetic words: —
March 7, 1804. — Memorable day! The British and
Foreign Bible Society founded. I and others belonging
to the tract society had long had it in view; and after much
preparation, in which we did not publicly appear, a meeting
was called in the London Tavern, and the society began with
a very few. . . . Nations unborn will have cause to bless
God for the meeting of this day. — "After a Hundred Years,"
page 2.
" During the first fifty years of its existence/' says
the society's centenary report, " it issued each year, on
an average, 559,000 copies of the Scriptures, complete
or in parts; during the next fifteen years, the annual
average rose to 1,951,000 copies/ 1 And now what is
the volume of circulation? — Over 7,000,000 copies
a year by this parent society alone. And the Ameri-
can Bible Society, organized in 181 7, is sending out
at the rate of over 3,000,000 copies a year. Other
societies are also at work, besides the vast circulation
by ordinary sale through the various Bible publishing
houses. Truly this is the era of Bible circulation.
It is a wonderful manifestation of God's providence
that just as the time of the prophecy came when
knowledge was to be increased, there should spring
up this movement that has spread the living Word
through all lands. Arid think of the inventions and
improvements and added facilities for multiplying
production and hastening distribution that have come
with the call of the hour.
' On the day of Pentecost, at Jerusalem, the gath-
ered multitude heard "the wonderful works of God,"
each in his own tongue. Sixteen or twenty languages,
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Era of Bible Circulation 177
more or less, were represented there. Now the Word
of God, in whole or in part, speaks in about five hun-
dred tongues, and each year a half-dozen or more new
tongues utter the wonderful works of God for the first
Syro-CJialdaiscli. SYRO-CHAIiDAXC. Syro-Chald*en.
(Syriac in Neslorian characters.)
Se-Tafcei*. TABELE or SEN-TEBELE.
{Matobeleland, S. Africa.)
Noba umtimo wa 11 tan'da kangaka urnhlaba wa
niga inDodana yake e zelwe yodwa, uguba bonke
aba kolwa guyo ba na bubi kodwa ba be logusila
ogunapeliyo.
John 3: 16, in ancient and modern versions *
time. The British and Foreign Bible Society report
for 191 1 said: —
The society's list of versions now includes the names of
432 distinct forms of speech. This means the complete
* From a pamphlet of the British Bible Society, showing John
3: 16 in over 400 languages in which the society is issuing at least
portions of the Sacred Word. The Syriac was a written language
in Christ's day; the African Tabele had to be reduced to writing
by the missionaries in this "century of missions."
12
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1 7 8
The Hand of God, in History
Bible in 107 different languages, the New Testament in 102
more languages, and at least one book of Scripture in 223
other languages. Forty-two new versions have been added
to the list during the last six years.
It is roughly estimated that already ninety-five
per cent of the earth's inhabitants might be reached
by the gospel in the tongues in which some portion of
the Bible has been translated. This is the Book that
speaks for all mankind.
"It claims no climate, shuns no race;
While centuries depart,
It finds a home in every place,
And speaks to every heart.
" Time's finger can not dim its page,
No foe can cloud its light;
The ages pass ; from age to age
It shines more clear, more bright."
Dr. Henry van Dyke has given us this beautiful
paragraph: —
Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form and im-
agery, the Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar
feet, and enters land after land to find its own everywhere.
It has learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart
of man. It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that
he is a servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to
assure the peasant that he is a son of God. Children listen
to its- stories with wonder and delight, and wise men pon-
der them as parables of life. It has a word of peace for the
time of peril, a word of comfort for the day of calamity, a
word of light for the hour of darkness. Its oracles are re-
peated in the assembly of the people, and its counsels whis-
pered in the ear of the lonely. The wicked and the proud
tremble at its warnings, but to the wounded and penitent it
has a mother's voice. The wilderness and the solitary place
have been made glad by it, and the fire on the hearth has
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Era of Bible -Circulation
179
lighted the reading of its well-worn page. * It has woven itself
into our deepest affections* and colored our dearest dreams;
so that love and friendship, sympathy and devotion, memory
and hope, put on the beautiful garments of its treasured
speech, breathing of frankincense and myrrh. Above the
cradle and beside the grave its great words come to us un-
called. They fill our prayers with power larger than we know,
and the beauty of them lingers on our ear long after the ser-
mons which they have adorned have been forgotten. They
return to us swiftly and quietly, like birds flying from" far
away. They surprise us with new meanings, like springs of
water breaking forth from the mountain beside a long-for-
gotten path. They grow richer, as pearls do when they are
worn near the heart. No man is poor or desolate who has
this treasure for his own. When theJandscape darkens and
the trembling pilgrim comes to, the Valley named of the
Shadow, he is not afraid to enter:- he takes the rod and
staff of Scripture in his hand : he says to friend and comrade,
"Good-by; we shall meet again ^' and comforted by that
support, he goes toward the lonely pass as one who climbs
through darkness into light.— - Century Magazine.
The preaching of the gospel is the preaching of the
word. "And this is the word," said Peter, "which
by the gospel is preached unto you." The Word of
God has done the transforming work in all the mis-
sionary enterprise that has marked the last century.
And the missionary has been the translator. Some
of our own Seventh-day Adventist missionaries have
had a small part in this work at this late day. It is a
wonderful thing when a tribal tongue begins to utter
for the first time the words that are spirit and life.
An Indian veteran missionary, William Arthur,
pays this tribute to the noble army of missionary
translators of the Holy Scriptures : —
To a student fresh knowledge is always sweet ; to a linguist
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The Hand of God in History
a new word is always musical; . . . but to a missionary, as
he consciously surmounts the difficulties of a heathen tongue,
all the pleasures of gain, of improvement, and of learning are
fused into one feeling of ardent happiness. His acquirements
are not hailed by the noisy admiration of the crowd, nor by
the stately approval of academic tribunals; but they are
A Spanish-American village
Bible Society colporteurs are spreading the Scriptures through
Spanish-speaking America.
hailed by the warm voice of the angel who hath the everlast-
ing gospel to preach. In gaining every additional word, or
phrase, or idiom, he grows richer, and seems to draw nigher
to the ascending Redeemer, that he may hear again his last
command, that command which is at once the missionary's
warrant and the world's hope. In conquering every diffi-
culty, he uncoils golden wires; and in securing each new word,
he sets another string necessary to complete the tones of the
harp on which, before the heathen, he will celebrate Him
who loved him and washed him from his sins in his own . . .
blood.
I can not utter, nor yet repress, the veneration with which
such a boon to mankind inspires me. He that benefits his
species is greater than he that pleases or astounds them.
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Era of Bible Circulation 181
But to be the benefactor of million^, and that to the end of
time, is a dignity conferred on few. Let others pay their
honors where they will. The profoundest reverence, the
liveliest thanks I may offer to creature, shall be reserved from
genius, grandeur, heroism, but cheerfully rendered to him
by whose godly toil a wide-spoken tongue is first made to utter
the words whereby my Redeemer may be known, my fellow
sinners may be saved. The deed is too vast for the chronicles
of earth, too pure for the praise of men. Every letter of its
record will be a regenerated soul, every stone of its testimonial
a redeemed family, every note of its paean an angel's joy.
He who can pursue the sunbeams, and trace, without one
omission, every lineament of beauty they pencil on tre'e, and
flower, and living thing, may tell the blessings that accrue
when the light of life is flung on the pathway of millions,
whom the darkness bewildered and destroyed. — " A Mission
to the Mysore. 11
In many instances the translator has had first to
reduce the language to written form, only a spoken
language being known among the people. More
than two hundred languages have been thus put into
writing for the first time, during the century, in order
that the Bible might speak its message of salvation.
In 1804, when the first Bible society was founded,
" there was not in any language a chapter of the Word
of God which the blind could read for themselves."
Now thirty-three different languages have portions
of the Scriptures, printed in the embossed, or raised-
letter, style, which the blind can read with the fingers.
The reports of a hundred years and more supply
many appealing stories of the way the Bible came to
peoples and tongues that had been without it. It
has come into communities like the arrival of a visitor
from heaven. The first issue of the British society —
appropriately enough — was the Welsh New Testa-
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1 82 The Hand of God in History
ment. The first shipment of five hundred was ordered
sent to Mr. Charles, of Bala, the place where Mary
Jones had wept her tears of grief and then of joy. The
news that the books were coming spread through the
valleys. '
By the Thursday week, the whole country was wild with
excitement, and people began to pour into Bala from the
neighboring villages and hill slopes at an early hour. When
the time came for the carrier to be at no great distance. from
the town, the people went out in crowds to meet him; the
old mare, which had ever before been obliged to struggle with
her load as best she could, was now relieved of it, and mus-
cular farm servants pushed themselves into the shafts. Ropes
were adjusted and manned and maidened, and the cart was
literally swarmed on all sides; then the joyful procession pro-
ceeded toward the town, where they were hailed by crowds
which blocked up the streets. — "Life of the Rev. Thomas
Charles" Vol. Ill, page 68.
In 1810 the Moravian missionary, Benjamin
Kohlmeister, returned to the bleak coast of Labrador,
with the first Scripture portion, the Gospel of John.
The little kaiaks, or canoes, filled with men, women,
and children, crowded about the ship, and with tears
and shouts of joy the missionary and his Book were
welcomed home. Mr. Canton says: —
The books were distributed in the winter, when all had
come home from their hunting excursions; and as they were
given only to those who could read, considerable progress was
made by scholars of all ages. The people took "St. John"
with them to the islands when they went out in search of fish
or game, seals, wild geese, or berries; and in their tents or
snow houses they spent the evenings reading by the glimmer
of the moss in their lamps of soapstone. But most they
liked to gather in some large dwelling at nightfall, when they
returned from the sea or the hunting-ground, and hear the
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183
Word of God read by some one, child or adult, who had been
taught in the schools of the mission. — " Little Hands and
God's Book," page 44.
Again, one of the secretaries of the Bible Society
tells of the arrival of a ship in the Society Islands,
in 1 8 16, bringing the paper from the society for the
printing of the Gospel of Luke in Tahitian. The
islanders had but turned from cannibalism within
a few years, and "the stones which had been used in
human sacrifices the missionary employed for his
printing-press.' ' Mr. Canton says: —
Now was not this a-marvelous thing, that in 1800 a little
barefoot girl went fifty miles over the Welsh hills for a Bible,
and that in 18 16 some portion, if not the whole, of that Sa-
cred Book had reached the ends of the earth — that the
Eskimo read it under the glow of the northern lights, and the
Hottentot child spelled it under the pear-tree in the Clough of
Baboons, and the Negro learned it by heart on the sugar
plantations, and the Red Indian carried it in his breast as he
threaded the forest or paddled on the Great Lakes, and that
the society had sent it^to the seaports of South America and
the Australian settlements, and was having it translated into
the languages of India and China and the Malay Archipel-
ago? — Id., page 4Q. *
When, in 1852, the missionary, Mr. Buzacott,
returned to Rarotonga with the printed Bible for
which the people had waited, —
a rush was made for the boat when it approached the shore;
the crew jumped out, and the boat, with all on board, was
lifted onto the shoulders of the people, and carried up the
beach toward the house — »- the men shouting, the women
weeping, for joy. . . . The heavy packages were brought
through the surf over the reef, and the happy "sons of
the Word" lightened their labor with a song in their own
tongue:- —
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1 84 The Hand of God in History
"The Word has come,
One volume complete!
Let us learn the good Word I
Our joy is great!
The whole Word has come!
The whole Word has come!"
"It is enough,' * said Papehia, when the books were dis-
tributed, — Papehia, the old native teacher, who first landed
on Rarotonga thirty years before, when the people were
savages and cannibals, — "my eyes have seen what my heart
has so long desired. I say with Simiona, 'Now, Lord, let
thy servant depart in peace ! ' " — Id., page 105.
Space fails to tell of long journeys made through
wildernesses to secure the precious Book. "In the
West Indies an old gray-headed slave trudged fifty
miles to obtain a Bible in order that it might be read
to many of his friends; and at the end of three months
he returned, as he had promised, with the price of it,
which had been collected among the slaves.'' Thus
to hearts in darkness in all parts of the world has
come the Blessed "dayspring from on high."
One of the treasures of the Bible House Library,
in London, is the "buried Bible/' in the Malagasy
tongue, from Madagascar. The wicked Queen Rana-
valona I had turned against the Christians. It was
in the year 1835. To be found with a Bible was
punishable with death. Search was made for the
' books. How this copy now in London was saved by
the Christians of one village is told by the organ of
the society, the Bible in All the World: —
A little to the northeast of their village was a hill, near
the foot of which stood a cluster of large boulders. Inside
that cluster from ten to thirty of the converts used to hold a
service each Sunday. Underneath one of the largest of the
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Era of Bible Circulation
185
boulders at the foot of the hill, the people had dug out a cave
to serve as a smallpox hospital for the village; in a dark cor-
ner of this cave their Bible was hidden between two slabs of
granite.
The queen's officers arrived at the village to search for
the Bible and other Christian books which the queen and
government believed, from the reports of spies, were to be
found there. A search was made in vain in the huts of the
suspected and in the rice-fields; and then the officers made «?
straight for the cluster of boulders on the hillside. When
they were actually on the point of entering the cave where
the. Bible lay, a villager said, "I suppose you know that this
is the smallpox hospital. " "We did not," they said, starting
back in horror. " Wretch! Why did you not tell us sooner?
Why did you let us come so near? " The officers beat a hasty
retreat — and the Bible was safe.
It was not the words of man about the Book, but
the inspired words themselves that had the power to let
the light into our dark hearts. Of the planting of one
Bible in the heart of the Dark Continent, the late
Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, told the
following story : —
Janet Livingstone, the sister of David Livingstone, made
me a present of a richly bound Bible. * Not liking to risk
it on the voyage round the Victoria Nyanza, I asked Frank
Pocock, my companion, to lend me his somewhat torn and
stained copy; and I sailed on my way to Uganda, little think-
ing what a revolution in Central Africa that book would make.
We stayed in Uganda some time, and one day during a morn-
ing levee, the subject of religion was broached, and I happened
to strike an emotional chord in the king's heart by making a
casual reference to angels. Kings and chiefs were moved as
one man to hear more about angels. My verbal descriptions
of them were not sufficient. "But," said I, "I have a book
with me which will tell you far better, not only what angels
are, but what God and his blessed Son are like, to whom the
angels are but. ministering servants."
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1 86 The Hand of God in History
"Fetch it," they eagerly cried, "fetch it now! we will
wait." The book was brought, opened, and I read the tenth
chapter of Ezekiel, and the seventh chapter of the Revelation
from the ninth verse to the end; and, as I read the eleventh
and twelfth verses, you could have heard a" pin drop; and when
they heard the concluding verses, "They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them,
nor any heat," I had a presentiment that Uganda would even-
• tually be won for Christ. I was not permitted to carry that
Bible away. Mtesa never forgot the wonderful words, nor
the startling effect they had on him and oh his chiefs. As I
was turning away from his country, his messenger came, and
cried: "The book! Mtesa wants the book!" It was given to
him. To-day the Christians number many thousands in
Uganda. They have proved their faith at the stake, under
the knobstick, and under torture till death.— Pier son's " Mod-
ern Mission Century " page P5.
The psalmist said: "He sendeth forth his com-
mandment upon earth: his word runneth very
swiftly." Ps. 147: 15. In this time of the end the
printed Word has been running to and fro through all
lands. The greatest circulation has been in Christen-
dom, and by the whole army of missionaries abroad;
but Bible colporteurs are carrying the book- into
thousands of the most remote corners of the earth.
Of the work by the colporteurs of the British society
— of whom there are considerably more than a thou-
sand in the field — an official report says : —
You meet these colporteurs along the highroads and foot-
paths of the world, visiting lonely homes and scattered ham-
lets, and mixing with the crowds at markets and festivals.
Last year, for example, they were selling the Scriptures on
the slopes of Vesuvius, in railway stations and barrack-rooms
of Siberia, in the banana plantations of Guatemala, in the
diamond-mines at Kimberley, and in the rice-fields of Bengal.
They were busy at Oberammergau during the passion-play,
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Era of Bible Circulation
187
and at Nijni Novgorod during the great fair. They have
offered their books among pilgrims to the holy places at Jeru-
salem, pilgrims to the grotto at Lourdes, pilgrims to Bud-
dhist shrines in Ceylon and in Japan. They have boarded
hundreds of ships in the harbors of Port Said and Naples and
Chefoo and Singapore. One colporteur finds shelter in a
camp of Kirghiz Tartars. Another in south India is mistaken
for a wizard, from whose magic words the people flee. An-
other in the Sudan crosses the desert with camels, and when
Asuncion, Paraguay, port for ocean steamers, a thousand miles up
the Parana River
he halts by the wells, must keep a fire burning all night to
scare off lions. At a heathen festival in Upper Burma a col-
porteur was beaten, and his books thrown into the Irrawaddy.
On the frozen river at Astrakhan a colporteur's sleigh broke
through the ice, both his horses were drowned, and he him-
self narrowly escaped. Last year these wandering Bible
sellers sold more than three million copies of the Scriptures,
spreading far and wide the revelation of God's redeeming
love. — 11 The Hundred and Seventh Report" page 6.
In the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, the angel said
to the prophet Daniel : —
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1 88 The Hand of God in History
"Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time
of the end many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased."
Generations and centuries ran on, until more than
two millenniums had passed. Empires had risen and
fallen; and the Papacy, the; great apostasy of the
prophecies, had built up its predicted kingdom of
darkness. All the time that word to Daniel stood
written on the page, waiting the hour. And when the
hour came, — at the close of the prophetic period,
— how wonderfully was the "sure word of prophecy"
fulfilled in the spreading to and fro over the earth of
the era of increasing light and knowledge! "The
Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the
nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the
salvation of our God." Isa. 52: 10.
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CHAPTER XXII
The Coming of the Judgment-Hour
With the ending of the long period of papal su-
premacy, events of the latter days have come crowd-
ing in. * , ■
The course of sin is not to run on indefinitely.
This earth has not escaped from the hand of its Makers
The end of the world is to come with the appear-
ance of Christ in power and glory to reap the. harvest
of the earth.
Through all the history of earth's warring king-
doms, events have been shaping to this great crisis,
now just before us. The Lord is to take the kingdom
and reign eternally. This is the bright, eternal pur-
pose that runs like a golden thread through all the ages,
from paradise lost to paradise restored. The living
God is master of events.
The early decades of the nineteenth century were
running swiftly by, with the awakening and increase
of knowledge that marked the new time; and just then
came yet another crisis — the greatest in the fulfil-
ment of time prophecy since the days of the Saviour's
first advent. It was the coming of the judgment^
hour in heaven.
The* Place of the Judgment "'V-' -
The Scriptures teach clearly that; there is a work
of judgment in heaven just preceding the second
* 189
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190 The Hand of God in History
coming of Christ. This is the investigative judgment,
and is not to be confounded with the final executive
judgment upon the wicked, which is to take place at
the end of the thousand years, as described in Revela-
tion 20.
When Christ appears at his second coming, it is
with a consuming glory that destroys the wicked.
2 Thess. 2 : 8/ The righteous dead are raised to life,
and the living righteous are translated: —
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven* with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." 1 Thess. 4:. 16, 17.*
The change to immortality is wrought instantly
at the coming of Christ: —
" We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling .
of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed." 1 Cor. 15:51, 52.
There is no time there for a judgment investigation.
Those brought forth to life have already been " ac-
counted worthy. 1 ' .The investigation of the accounts
in the books of heaven takes place in the solemn
judgment review just before the end. The investi-
gation must necessarily begin with the records of the
dead, and at the close the heavenly court must pass
upon the living, until the last case is called and de-
cided. And this takes place while men. and nations
on earth are pursuing their wonted course, living as if
time is to go on indefinitely. In vision of the very
last days, the prophet heard voices in heaven say-.
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Coming of the Judgment-Hour 19!
"And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and
the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou
shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to
the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great;
and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." Rev.
11:18.
The prophet Daniel was shown in vision the open-
ing of this judgment-hour in heaven, while still the
apostasy was lifting up itself against Gqd's truth on
earth, and the world was running swiftly onward to-
ward the final day : —
"I beheld till the thrones were cast down [" placed,"
R. V.], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was
white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool :
his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning
fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him:
thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set,
and the books were opened." Dan. 7:9, 10.
This was the wondrous scene that took place in
heaven when the hour of God's judgment came. And
the sure word of prophecy fixes the time when this
solemn work began in the heavenly temple.
The Time of the Judgment-Hour
In the third year of Belshazzar, of Babylon,
Daniel was shown the development of the great
J apostasy. Dan. 8: 10-13. As he beheld its warfare
against God 's truth and his sanctuary and his people,
arid saw it prospering as though to triumph forever
over the right, the prophet heard a voice asking:
"How long shall be the vision ... to give both the
sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?"
, Arid the answer was,— -
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192 The Hand of God in History
"Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall
the sanctuary be cleansed." Dan. 8:14.
Thank God, the wrong is not forever to triumph.
God gives his answer in his own good time and way.
In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year.
The cry was, in effect, Until when shall apostasy be
allowed to work its way? When shall the Lord lift
up the standard against it, and cut short its course?^
The reply was an assurance that at the close of the
prophetic period of 2300 years there would come a
work which should give God's final answer to the
lifting lip of error and apostasy.
This long prophetic period, as we know from the
seventeenth verse, must reach to v the latter days;
"for at the time of the end shall be the vision. " In
the angel's explanation of the time feature of this
vision (in the ninth chapter), this longest of the
prophetic measuring lines is shown to date from the
"going forth of the commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem." This commandment went forth
(as was shown in the detailed study in early numbers
of this series) in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, B. c.
457. Measuring from this time, 2300 full years reach
to the year 1844. Then, as the sure word of proph-
ecy declared , there was to corne a new development in
the work of God: "Then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed." p
The cleansing of the sanctuary in the typical
Levi tical service was the last work of the yearly round
of priestly ministry. Leviticus 16. Through the
year the ministry was in the first apartment, the holy
place, of the sanctuary. But on the,4ast ; ;tJ^.of ;the
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Coming of the Judgment-Hour 193
service — and on that day only — the high priest
entered the second apartment, the most holy place,
and the sanctuary was cleansed from the sins that
had been registered there by the sprinkled blood as
penitents had come with their offerings day by day.
It was the great day of atonement, really an annual
day of judgment in Israel; for all who were not found
right with God that day were to be cut off from his
people. Lev. 23 : 29.
The brief yearly round of the Levi tical service was
a "shadow," a type, of the whole priestly ministry of
Christ, our High
Priest, in the true
sanctuary above.
The last phase of his
ministry in the heav-
enly sanctuary, then,
Ground plan of earthly sanctuary must be similarly a
judgment work, cor-
responding to that final day of the cleansing of
the earthly sanctuary. The prophet Daniel, in the
words quoted from the seventh chapter, describes the
transfer of the throne and the priestly ministry from
the holy -place to the most holy of the heavenly sanc-
tuary. He saw the moving throne, with its wheels of
flame, "placed" for the final work. "The judgment
was set, and the books were opened." A change had
taken place in the work of our High Priest.
It was the opening of the great antitypical day of
the cleansing of the sanctuary that the prophet here
described. When this judgment work is finished, the
cases of all mankind are decided for eternity. In
13
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194
The Hand of God in History
the camp of Israel those who were not found right
with God when the high priest finished that serv-
ice of cleansing the sanctuary, were cut off from part
with the people of God, Even so, when the solemn
work now going forward in heaven is finished, those not
found right with God are forever lost. Then will
apply the words of Christ: —
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which
is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still : and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
And, behold, I come quickly." Rev. 22: n, 12.
And this judgment work that will put an end to sin
will bring the great apostasy to account before the bar
of God. As the ang;el said to Daniel, speaking of the
papal power: "The judgment shall sit, and they shall
take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it
unto the end.' * Dan. 7:26.
This judgment-hour began in 1844. As the solemn
scenes of the opening judgment were taking place in
heaven above, events of deep significance in the fulfil-
ment of prophecy were taking place in the work of
God on earth.
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CHAPTER XXIII
The Announcement of the Judgment-Hour
An event of such solemn import to all mankind
as the opening of the judgment-hour in heaven, could
never come unannounced and unheralded to the
world. That is not the divine way.
The Sound of the Trumpets
As the time of cleansing the sanctuary was draw-
ing near in the camp of Israel of old, the people were
forewarned of the approach of the solemn hour. .This
day of atonement was the typical day of judgment;
and not a soul could endure who let the day pass un-
heeded, with sins unforgiven. There was to be prep-
aration of heart for the day, as well as consecration
of soul before God upon it, as the high priest went in
to minister before God in the most holy place.
The typical service of cleansing the sanctuary
came on the tenth day of the seventh month.. On the
first day of that month there was to be "a memorial
of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation." Lev.
23:24/ The silver trumpets pealed out through the
camp of Israel, proclaiming the solemn day of atone-
ment near at hand.
True to the type, as the fateful year of 1844 drew
near, bringing the opening of the great antitypical
day of atonement, the trumpet-call of the coming
judgment-hour was sounding through Christendom.
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196 The Hand of God in History
There was sent of the Spirit of God a movement that
swept over many lands, bearing the awakening cry of
the prophecy: —
"Fear God, and give glory to him; for die hour of his
judgment is come." Rev. 14: 7.
The passing of the early decades of the nineteenth
century had brought ever-increasing interest in the
study of prophecies concerning the second coming of
Christ. The stirring events associated with the end-
ing of the 1260 years of papal supremacy were clearly
recognized as factors in fulfilling prophecy. It was
seen that the end was approaching. There was
searching to and fro for yet further light.
Writing of those times, an Anglican clergyman and
writer says : — -
The world was awakening to a new life. ... It was the
birth-time of an epoch of fresh inventions, of a wondrous ad-
vance in science and in outward means of living. The mist
of age h&d gathered round the institutions of former gener-
ations. . . . The narrow religious maxims that had been
long in vogue brought little relief. Stirring incidents had
taken place. During their occurrence some people had been
led to imagine that the " mystery of God was . drawing to a
close, and that the events of every year explained something
previously unknown." And now, with mingled apprehension
and hope, they were looking anxiously forward. , They were
filled with the idea that the period in which they were living
would prove to be the critical turning-point in the commence-
ment of the end. — Edward Miller M. A., in " Irvingisin"
Vol. /, page n.
In these times light began to come to Bible students
as to the ending of the prophetic period of 2300 years
(Dan. 8: 14), reaching to the judgment-hour. Hith-
erto the event from which the period dated had not
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Announcement of the Hour
197
been clear. Now the subject opened up, and it was
seen that the period was to be reckoned from the
commandment to restore Jerusalem (in the seventh
year of Artaxerxes), as explained by the angel in the
vision of Daniel 9. Light on this came almost simul-
taneously to searchers after truth in many parts, to
men working and studying independently of one
another.
In his " Great Second Advent Movement," J. N.
Loughborough gives "a list of twenty different parties
who discovered the truth concerning the close of
the 2300 days, not by communication with each
other, but as the result of diligent searching of
the Scriptures, led by the influence of the Spirit of
God."— Page 86.
World-Wide Awakening
The interest in the subject of the judgment-hour
grew into a great awakening as the year 1844 drew
near. It was thought that the coming of the judg-
ment-hour meant also the second coming of Christ.
The message of the approaching 'judgment was her-
alded throughout the United States, Canada, and
Great Britain. Witnesses were raised up in Holland,
Germany, Russia, and in the Scandinavian countries.
Joseph Wolff, the famous traveling missionary of
England, preached of the coming judgment-hour in
remarkable journeyirigs through Greece, Turkey,
Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, and on through Afghanis-
tan to India. Papers were printed in various coun-
tries to publish the message, and publications were
sent to mission stations in all parts of the world.
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The Hand of God in History
Speaking of the days just before 1844, an Anglican
writer, Mourant Brock, said: —
- It is not merely in Great Britain that the expectation of
the near return of the Redeemer is entertained, and the voice
of warning raised, but also in America, India, and on the con-
tinent of Europe. In America, about three hundred min-
isters of the word are thus preaching "this gospel of the king-
dom;" whilst in this country, about seven hundred of the
Church of England are raising the same cry. — Advent Tracts,
Vol. I'l, page 135 {1844).
Not all who joined in this proclamation explained
the prophecies alike, or emphasized the definite year
1844 as the hour of God's judgment; but as this hour
came, the world was ringing with the call to prepare
to meet the judgment, even as the hosts of Israel were
called by the trumpet peals to prepare for the typical
day of atonement.
The great advent awakening in the days of 1844
was of God, in fulfilment of prophecy. The apostle
John, in the Revelation, had seen the message of the
judgment-hour being carried to the nations and
tongues of earth as. that hour came (Rev. 14:6, 7);
and with the coming of the hour the world heard the
trumpet-call of the message: "Fear God, and give
glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come."
"After the passing of the time, unbelievers scoffed
at the movement. The Lord had not come. Those
who had looked for his appearance in the clouds of
heaven were disappointed. But they had given the
judgment-hour call; and that was the message due to
the world at that time.
In the days of the Saviour's first advent, the dis-
ciples and the populace had proclaimed the trium-
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Announcement of the Hour
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phal entry of Christ into Jerusalem. They were at
once disappointed ; instead of enthroning him as king,
they witnessed his crucifixion. But, in proclaiming
the coming of Zion's King to Jerusalem, they were
fulfilling the prophecy that had been uttered, and
were giving the message for that day, notwithstanding
their mistaken view as to the events that would follow.
Just so the trumpet-call of the coming judgment-
hour was the message for the days of 1844; and the
message was given, attended by the power of God.
When the hour was at hand,' the providence of God
raised up the witnesses even though those engaged
in the work did not understand fully the events that
were to follow.
' On that day of Christ's triumphal entry into Jeru-
salem, the priests asked Jesus to rebuke the children,
who were crying the welcoming message of the proph-
ecy. - But he answered them, "'If these should hold
their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."
Luke 19:40. The prophetic cry was bound to be
^raised, and children's voices joined in fulfilling the
sure word. In the days of 1843 the authorities in one
part of Sweden sought to suppress the proclamation
of the judgment-hour message. Then children, the
history tells us, were moved upon to preach, and to
exhort men to prepare for the judgment, the con-
victing and converting power of God attending their
work.
Thus, as the hour of the prophecy came, procla-
mation was made to turn the attention of men to the
solemn hour of the investigative judgment, which be-
gan in 1844. When that hour closes, the hour of
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200 The Hand of God in History
human probation is forever past. The measuring
line of the 2300 years reaches to the latest fixed time
set in the prophetic word. It is the last way-mark of
time prophecy. From that Pisgah peak of 1844, the
"sure word" directs the pilgrim's gaze to the eternal
Canaan just before.
While the scenes of the judgment are passing in the
courts above, the last gospel message is borne to every
nation and tongue. Out of the advent awakening of
the days of 1844 arose the definite advent movement,
in fulfilment of prophecy, which is to carry the last
message to all the world, and prepare the way before
the coming of Christ in power and glory.
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CHAPTER XXIV
The Advent Movement of Rev. 14:6-14
On the isle of Patmos the Lord opened before John
in vision the scenes of the last' days. In the vision of
the latter part of the fourteenth chapter of the Reve-
lation, the prophet was given a view of the second
coming of Christ to reap the harvest of the earth :
"And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the
cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head
a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle." Verse 14.
But just preceding this view of the Lord's coming,
the prophet was shown the closing gospel work on
earth. He saw a special gospel movement rising as
the hour of God's judgment came, and spreading to all
the world, bearing a threefold message of preparation
for the coming of the Lord. In the symbolic manner
of these prophecies the movement is described as
follows: —
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven,
having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell
on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue,
and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory
to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship
him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the foun-
tains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying,
Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made
all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,
If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his
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The Hand of God in History
mark in his -forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of
the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without '
mixture into the cup of -his indignation; and he shall be tor-
mented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of
their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have
no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image,
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the
patience of the saints: here are they that keep the command-
ments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. ,14: 6-12.
The picture is plain. As the hour of God's judg-
ment came, in 1844, it marked the beginning of a
special gospel movement that is to .go forward until
human probation closes, just before Christ appears in
the clouds of heaven. In the symbolic prophecy,
angels represent the proclamation of the gospel mes-
sages by men ; fqr it is to men that God has committed
the preaching of the gospel. But the association of
angels with the work is more than symbol also; for all *
the angels are " ministering spirits, " sent forth as in-
visible helpers to lead the human agents in the work
of God on earth.
The prophet saw in vision the coming of the judg-
ment-hour in 1844. He beheld the rise of the advent
movement. He saw the kind of people developed by
the movement, — a people keeping "the command-
ments of God, and the faith of Jesus." He heard
them preaching the hour of God's judgment; pro-
claiming the fall of great Babylon; warning men
against following the "beast," the symbol of the great-
apostasy; and calling all to the divine platform of
"the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
This is what the prophet saw in vision of the last
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203
days. And what he saw he wrote on the sacred page
nearly nineteen centuries ago.
The centuries passed ; the work of God moved for-
ward in the earth, through days of peril and days of
reformation. Prophecy was fulfilling, events of the
latter days were taking place, and servants of God be-
gan to proclaim the coming of Christ near at hand.
But nowhere in the world did men see a people doing
the work of this prophecy of Revelation 14, and giving
the threefold message recorded there, until the year
1844 brought the hour of God's judgment.
When the year 1844 brought the full time of the
prophecy, it brought the beginning of the definite
advent movement which is proclaiming the message
of the prophecy to the world to-day. It was in that
very year (1844), in New Hampshire, that a little
company of believers in the near coming of the Lord
was led to see that the New Testament platform of
"the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, "
meant the keeping of the fourth commandment as well
as the other nine; and they began to keep God's holy
Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week.
In his history of the advent awakening of those
times, J. N. Loughborough says of the beginning of
Sabbath observance among Adventists': —
This doctrine, among Adventists, arose on this wise:
Rachel Preston, a Seventh-day Baptist, moved to Washing-
ton, N. H., where there was a church of Adventists. She
accepted the advent doctrine, and that church, composed of
about forty members, through her missionary labors accepted
the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. This led to in-
quiry upon that subject. In the Midnight Cry [one of the
papers devoted to the 1844 movement, published in New
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204 The Hand of God in History
York City] of Sept. 5, 1844, we read, ''Many persons have
their minds deeply exercised respecting a supposed obligation
to observe the seventh day." This statement was contained
in an editorial, in which a faint effort was made to establish
the claims of Sunday-keeping. The subject was continued
in the number of September 12, where we find the following
significant statement, which led to serious and close study by
many : —
* 1 Last week we found ourselves brought to this conclusion :
There is no particular portion of time which Christians are
required by law to set aside as holy time. If this conclusion
is incorrect, then we think the seventh day is the only day for
the observance of which there is any law." — u Great Second
Advent Movement" page 24Q.
Thus the matter of the Sabbath of the command-
ment was being agitated, and some were already keep-
ing it. Frederick Wheeler, formerly a Methodist
Episcopal minister, was one of this number. In a
statement based on facts of his own dictation, we
read: —
As a Methodist minister he was convinced of the advent
truth by reading William Miller's works in 1842, and joined
in preaching the first message [that of the judgment-hour].
In March, 1844, he began to keep the true Sabbath, in Wash-
ington, N. H. — Review and Herald (Washington, D. C),
Oct. 4, IQ06.
He is " supposed to have preached the first sermon
in favor of the seventh-day Sabbath ever given by an
Adventist minister, before the passing of the time in
1844." — Obituary in Review and Herald, Nov. 24,
IQIO.
The next year Capt. Joseph Bates, an Adventist
leader, of Massachusetts, began to keep the Sabbath
and to publish the message of reform in printed form*
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205
Others followed. Light as to the real meaning of the
judgment-hour, and the work to be done in carrying
the threefold message to the world, came flooding in,
and the definite advent movement of the prophecy
was started upon its way. This is the movement that
Capt. Joseph Bates
Seventh-day Adventists stand for to-day, with a work
spreading forth into all the world, preaching the mes-
sage of "the everlasting gospel" in the exact terms of
the prophecy of Rev. 14: 6-12.
When the hour of the prophecy came, in 1844, it
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The Hand of God in History
found the people of the prophecy, a little nucleus of
believers, keeping "the commandments of God, and
the faith of Jesus," and crying the message, " The hour
James White, pioneer leader and organizer in the
advent movement
of his judgment is come." When the hour struck,
the work began. There is the precision of the in-
finite power of the living God in this fulfilling of the
"sure word of prophecy" written centuries before.
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This advent movement was born of God. Those
who turned to the keeping of God's commandments as
a matter of Sabbath reform in the year 1844 little
understood that it was the beginning of a new and
definite movement in fulfilment of the prophecy.
They had no thought of devising a work to fit the
prophecy. But in the days immediately following,
as believers in the approaching second advent began
to understand the doctrine of the cleansing of the
sanctuary, all was plain. They saw that the judg-
ment-hour had truly come in 1844, and that while
this closing ministry of Christ was going forward in
heaven,, the last message of the everlasting gospel was
to be carried to all the world, calling men away from
papal traditions to the standard of God's eternal
truth.
That the warning of the threefold message is
against following, the Roman Papacy is evident;, for
the beast whose worship is denounced is the power
symbolized by the leopard beast of the previous chap-
ter. See Rev. 13: 1-8. This is easily identified with
the little horn of Daniel 7. Like that power, the
beast was to speak "great things," to "make war
with the .saints," and its period of special supremacy
is the same as that of the little horn of Dan. 7: 25,
where we first meet the prophecy of the 1260 years of
papal supremacy. The Papacy is the great apostasy
of the prophetic scriptures. The advent movement
lifts up the standard against this power in the closing
gospel work.
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CHAPTER XXV
The Advent Message of Rev. 14:6-14
The message of "the everlasting gospel/ ' in this
generation, is a message of Sabbath reform; for it is,
in the Sabbath of the fourth commandment that
Christendom has in doctrine as well as in practise set
aside the commandments of God and followed papal
tradition. The call of God, in this threefold message
of Revelation 14, opens with the words: —
"Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his
judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven and
earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."
This call to reformation in the worship of God is
based on the terms of the fourth commandment. It is
an appeal to worship the God who ' ' made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath
day, and hallowed it." Ex.. 20: 11.
It is the Creator, the God who made the Sabbath
the sign of his creative power, that is to be worshiped.
"Hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign be-
tween me and you, that ye may know that I am the
Lord your God." Eze. 20: 20.
The Sabbath is the sign, the divinely appointed
mark of the living and the true God.
But the Roman Papacy has set up a mark of its
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The Advent Message
?°9
own, a badge of the assumed power of the Catholic
Church, to speak for God independently of his Holy
Word. The Papacy points to the existence of the
Sunday institution in Christendom as a mark of its
power and authority ; and so it is.
It , was on this very point that the famous Council
of Trent based Rome's answer to the Protestant
Reformation, that tradition and not Scripture alone
is the guide, with the voice of the Catholic Church
the living voice, instead of the Bible, the living Word of
God. The council had long debated the ground of
its answer. The history records : —
Finally, at the last opening on the eighteenth of January,
1562, their last scruple was set aside; the archbishop of Rheg-
gio made a speech in which he openly declared that tradition
stood above Scripture. The authority of the church could'
therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, be-
cause the church had changed Sabbath into Sunday, not by.
the command of Christ, but by its* own authority. With this,
to be sure, the last illusion was destroyed, and it was declared
that tradition does not signify antiquity, but continual in-
spiration. — Dr. J. H. Holtzrnan, "Canon and Tradition,"
page 263. ,
In this speech of the archbishop of Rheggio,
Caspar del Fossa by name, arguing, from the generally
accepted change of the Sabbath, that the world had
acknowledged that the church has power to change
the written word and law of God, it was stated: —
Such is the condition of the heretics to-day that they
appeal to no other matter more than that they, under the
pretense of the Word of God, overthrow the church; as though
the church, which is the body of Christ, could be opposed to
this Word, or the head to the body. Yea, the authority of
the church is most gloriously set forth by the Holy Scriptures ;
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210, The Hand of God in History
for while on the one hand she recommends the same, declares
them divine, offers them to us to be read, explains them faith-
fully in doubtful passages, and condemns whatever is con-
trary to them, on the other hand, the legal precepts of the
Lord contained in them have ceased byvirtue of the same
authority. The Sabbath, the most glorious day in the .law,
has been changed into the Lord's day. . . . This and other
similar matters have not ceased by virtue of Christ's teaching
(for he says he came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it), but
they have been changed by virtue of the authority of the
church. Should this authority cease (which would surely
please the heretics),, who would then witness for truth, and
confound the obstinacy of the heretics? — Mansi, Paris,
IQ02, 33, pages 526-533, quoted in " The History of the Sabbath,"
page 588, Andrews and Conradi {Review and Herald, Wash-
ington, D. C).
Ever since, the Papacy has been boldly challen-
ging Protestants with inconsistency in holding to the
observance of Sunday while rejecting the authority
of the Roman Church. - One finds it in almost any
Roman Catholic catechism. Thus: ^—
Question ~ Have you any other way of proving that the
church has. power to institute festivals of precept?
\. Answer .— Had she not.' such power, . . . she could not
have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of
- the week, for Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which
there is no Scriptural authority. — :Kennan J s "Doctrinal
Catechism," page 174.
Again, a standard Roman Catholic work written
for Protestants, says : —
The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an horn- '
age they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the
church/ — "Plain Talk About the Protestantism of To-Day."
There can be no question as to the fact that the
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211
Bible recognizes no change of the day of the Sabbath.
As Cardinal Gibbons says : —
You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and
you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification
of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance
of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify, — " Faith of -
Our Fathers" page in. .
Protestant authorities — men who themselves
observe the traditional Sunday — have freely de-
clared that the New Testament nowhere teaches the
substitution of the first day of the week for. the seventh
as the day of rest. Smith and Cheetham's " Diction-
ary of Christian Antiquities," a standard work ed-
ited by Church of England clergymen, says: — ,
The notion of a formal substitution by apostolic authority
of the Lord's day [meaning -Sunday] for the Jewish Sabbath,
and the transference to it,- perhaps in a spiritualized form,
of the Sabbatical obligation established by the promulgation
of the fourth commandment, has no basis whatever, either
in Holy Scripture or in Christian antiquity. — Article "Sab-
bath."
And all the time the fourth command of God's
holy law declares the seventh day to be the Lord's
day, not a 41 Jewish" sabbath, but ' 1 the Sabbath of
the Lord thy God." Whoever takes Jehovah as God
and Lord is asked by him to take his Sabbath also.
Here are statements by another Church of Eng- *
land writer, Dr. Eyton, canon of Westminster: —
There is no word nor hint, in the New Testament, about
abstaining from work on Sunday.
No commandment of God bids us do this or hot do that
on Sunday; we are absolutely free as far as his law goes.
The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands on
exactly the same footing as the observance of Sunday.
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The Hand of God in History
Into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters. — " The Ten
Commandments, " Truebner & Co. (London).
The late Dr. R. W. Dale, Congregationalist, .
famous in all the churches as one of England's fore-
most writers and scholars, said: 1 —
It is quite clear that however rigidly or devoutly we may
spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was founded on a specific divine command.
We can plead no such command for the observance of Sunday.
There is not a single sentence in the New Testament to
suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed
sanctity of . Sunday. — u The Ten Commandments," Hodder
and Stoughton {London).
Christ kept the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth
commandment, as he kept all his " Father's command-
ments." He declared
himself "Lord also of
the Sabbath." Mark
2: 28. It is the only
Lord's day of Holy
Scripture, the only day
blessed and made holy *
by the Lord. In keep-
ing it, Jesus left his fol-
lowers for all time an
example that they
should walk "even as he walked." I John 2: 6. He
is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day,
and forever." He never changed the perfect law of
God, which is "holy, and just, and good;" he mag-
nified the law in his earthly life and death, and ever
lives to bring repentant sinners into the obedience
of faith. The new-covenant promise declares the
Christ's death for transgressors at-
tests the unchangeable integ-
rity of God's law
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213
joyful word, "I will put my laws into their mind,
and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me* a, people-." Heb.
8: 10. That is the work of Jesus Christ and his
gospel.
But the Papacy, that antichristian power brought
to view in Daniel's prophecy that was to 1 1 think to
change" the law of God (Dan. 7:25), has set aside
the sign, or mark, of the living God, the Sabbath, and
set up its own mark, the Sunday institution. This
mystic Babylon of the prophecies has "made all
nations drink of the wine" of its errors and perver-
sions. Even some professedly Protestant peoples are
found seeking by civil law to compel the observance
of the Sunday, the mark of papal authority. There-
fore the Lord sends the last message to all nations,
crying the warning : —
11 If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive
his mark in his forehead, or in his : hand, the same shall drink
of the wine of the wrath of God."
The whole question of loyalty and allegiance is
bound up in this matter. The Lord sets forth his
sign, the holy Sabbath, and the Papacy sets forth its
sign, the Sunday institution. Whom shall we follow,
— the living God, or the Roman Papacy that "sit-
teth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as
God"?
The age-long controversy between truth and error
is brought to the final crisis in this last generation.
The issue is clear. There it stands written in the
"sure word of prophecy" for all mankind to read.
The Reformation is not ended yet. Every movement
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The Hand of God in History
of reform in past days has been leading up to this
last stand for God and his Holy Word, on the plat-
form of the primitive faith of the New Testament —
"the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. "
The closing work of the judgment-hour in heaven
and this advent movement and message on earth are
God's answer to the great apostasy.
The prophet of old, as he saw the workings of
apostasy treading down the sanctuary and the truth
of God, heard the cry, "How long shall be the vision? 99
Men whose preaching of the word for their generations wrought
reformation in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries
How long, O Lord, how long? was the cry of hearts
through the dark night of papal error. The Lord's
answer was, " Unto two thousand and three hundred
days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." In-
terpreted, that answer was, Unto the year 1844, then
will the judgment work begin in heaven that is to cut
short the reign of sin and apostasy; and then will the
Lord lift up on the earth standard of eternal truth
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215
against the Papacy in the final gospel message to the
world.
Truths obscured by tradition and trampled under
the foot of apostasy are to be proclaimed anew.
The message of Rev. 14 : 6-14 is spreading to the world.
Every year thousands of new voices join in telling it.
Printing-presses are printing this message in many,
lands. Schools and colleges in every continent are
educating thousands of Seventh-day Adventist youth,
keeping before them, as the highest aim in life, the
hastening of the advent message of Revelation 14 to
the world. Sanitariums in many parts are training
o Home of our first Armenian missionary in Turkey
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The Hand of God in History
medical missionary evangelists, ministering at the
same time to the sick, and teaching the principles of
Bible health and temperance. The movement neces-
sarily emphasizes every principle and every truth of
"the everlasting gospel," while pressing upon all the
solemn issue that loyalty to Christ now means to turn
from papal tradition to the commandments of God
and the faith of Jesus, from the Sunday of the Roman
Papacy. to "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God."
In times past Christian believers have been un-
wittingly following the Papacy in this matter; the
Lord holds no man accountable for light that he did
not have. Reformation is a progressive work. Of
the past we may say with Paul: "The times of this
ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all
men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed
a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteous-
ness." Acts 17:31. And now, with this "hour of
God's judgment" already come, the entire covering
of papal tradition is to be torn aside, and true be-
lievers will be found keeping the faith and keeping the
commandments of God as Jesus comes in glory.
All this was shown to John. on the Isle of Patmos,
— the coming of the jutlgment-hour, the rise of the
advent movement, and the heralding of the last mes-
sage to the nations.
What John saw in vision nearly two thousand
years ago, we see fulfilling before our eyes to-day.
It is not enough to see it. We must have a part in it,
and be a part of it.
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CHAPTER XXVI
Providential Agencies for a Quick Work in Evan-
gelizing the World
In the vision of the advent movement of Rev.
14: 6-14, the prophet saw the closing message of "the
everlasting gospel' ' being carried swiftly, as by an
angel " flying in the midst of heaven," to every nation
and tribe and tongue.
The Lord, the living God, is independent of the use
of material agencies. He sends forth his word, and
his Spirit speaks to hearts direct from heaven above.
He appeals to the fact that he "giveth breath" to
every soul on earth, every moment, as evidence of his
power to send the message of life to every 'soul. Isa.
42: 5-7. But he works through human agencies also
in proclaiming the gospel message. He sends saved
sinners to tell other sinners the way of life. Not unto
angels but unto men has he committed the preaching
of the word of reconciliation to the world. And
wondrously has the providence of God wrought in
raising up facilities and opening ways for a quick work
in this generation.
Not so many years before the year 1844 brought
the hour of God's judgment and the rise of the definite
advent movement of the prophecy, there was not
a steamship plowing the seas, nor a steam railway
train moving on earth. We to-day can scarcely real-
ize how very modern are the means for rapid transit.
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218 The Hand of God 'in History
Writing of world-transforming events of' the
Victorian era — Queen Victoria began her reign in
1837— Mr. J..H. M'Carthy said, in his "Short
History of Our Own Times," written in 1880: —
A reign which saw in its earliest years the application of
the electric current to the task of transmitting messages, the
first successful attempts to make use of steam for the business
of transatlantic navigation, the general development of the
railway system all over these countries, and the introduction
of the penny post, must be considered to have obtained for
itself, had it secured no other memorials, an abiding place in
history. The history of the past forty or fifty years is almost
absolutely distinct from that of any preceding period. In all
that part of our social life which is affected by industrial and
mechanical appliances we see a complete revolution. A man
of the present day suddenly thrust back fifty years in life,
would find himself almost as awkwardly unsuited to the ways
of that time as if he were sent back to the age when the Ro-
mans occupied Britain. He would find himself harassed at
every step he took. He could do hardly anything as he does
it to-day. Sir Robert Peel traveled from Rome to London to
assume office as prime minister, exactly as Constantine trav-
eled from York to Rome to become emperor. Each traveler
had all that sails and horses could do for him, and no more.
A few years later Peel might have reached London from Rome
in some forty-eight hours. — Page g.
The heart is filled with awe in contemplation of the
wonderful changes of our own generation, as we real-
ize that these developments have come about in the
providence of God, in order that in this hour of God's
judgment the whole world shall hear the gospel
message.
Speaking of the providential preparing of the
pathways over the world for the era of modern mis-
sions, Dr. Edward Lawrence says : — -
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Agencies for a Quick Work 219
There was one other force which was needed to fully
equip the church for its universal activity, and to draw the
nations of the world Together into a . net, as the peoples of
old had been drawn into the Greco-Roman empire. That
was the power of steam, which was to bind the lands together
with bands of steel, turn the oceans into a Mediterranean,
make the locomotive an emissary of God's kingdom, and the
steamer a morning star to herald the day. That invention
was not ready to begin its task of annihilating space until the
dawn of the. nineteenth century. But it was ready in time,
for not until then was the purified church itself roused to a
fidelity grand enough to undertake the work for which God
had been preparing this equipment. It was in 1807, while
the young men at Williamstown were praying and studying
about missions, that Robert Fulton was making the first trip
of the /'Clermont" from New York to Albany. — Introduc-
tion to Foreign Missions," page 20.
The " Clermont's' ' success in that early time was
bright with promise for the future revolutionizing of
ocean travel. As Julia Ward Howe wrote for the
Fulton centenary celebration : —
" And not alone for Hudson's stream
Avails the magic power of steam.
Blessings of unimagined worth
Its speed shall carry 'round the earth;
Knowledge shall on its pinions fly,
Nor land nor race in darkness lie ;
Commerce her hoards shall freely bring
To many an urgent summoning,
And Want and Wealth, in sundered lands,
Shall closely clasp redeeming hands."
But it was not at once apparent <that the wide world
was to be reduced to small dimensions by the new
developments. As late as 1835 a Liverpool news-
paper gave the following report of a lecture by a Dr.*
Lardner: —
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The Hand of God in History
As to the project, however, which was announced in the
newspapers of making the voyage directly from New York to
Liverpool, it was, he had no hesitation in saying, perfectly
chimerical, and they might as well talk of making a voyage
from New York or Liverpool to the moon. — Liverpool Al-
bion, Dec. 14, 1835.
But the new time at hand in the divine program of
fulfilling prophecy demanded the bringing in of facili-
The " Great Britain," first ocean steamship with iron hull,
crossing the Atlantic in 1845
ties never before employed; and with the call of the
hour the facilities came. In 1838 the British steam-
ships "Great Western," "Sirius," and " Royal Will-
iam" made successful trips to New York, and in-
augurated the steamship passenger service between
the Old World and the New. A New York paper,
commenting on the, arrival of the "Sirius" and the
"Great Western," said: —
What may be the ultimate fate of this excitement —
whether or not the expense of equipment and fuel will admit
of the employment of these vessels in the ordinary packet serv-
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ice — we can not pretend to form an opinion; but of the en-
tire feasibility of the passage of the Atlantic by steam, as far as
regards safety, comfort, and despatch, even in the roughest
and most boisterous weather, the most skeptical must now
cease to doubt. — Courier and- Enquirer, April 24, i8j8.
There was one other step to take, however,
for real success. That came in 1843. Then was
launched the "Great Britain, " at Bristol, the first
of the ocean passenger-boats with iron hull, and the
first ocean steamer fitted with screw propeller. "To
forge her main shaft James Nasmyth invented his
celebrated steam-hammer." The ship made its first
voyage, to New York, in 1845. This ship was the
pioneer of the enduring type of ocean steamships
which now, in numerous fleets, are furrowing all the
seas, uniting all lands, —
"Swift shuttles of an empire's loom,
That weave us main to main."
They have made open and swift the path in our
day to the uttermost coasts of the earth.
The steam railway came on apace with the steam-
ship. While Fulton was completing his " Clermont,' '
he was also studying the steam-railway problem. A
letter sent him by Chancellor Livingston reads so
curiously now that it may well be given here as a
memorial of times that shortly preceded this last
generation: —
Albany, March 11, 1807.
Dear Sir : I did not until yesterday receive yours of the
twenty-fifth of February. Whether it has loitered on the
way, I am at a loss to say. I had before read your very in-
genious propositions as to the railway communication. Hear,
however, upon mature reflection, that they will be liable to
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The Hand of God in History
objections, and ultimately more expensive than a canal.
They must be doubled, so as to prevent the danger of two
such heavy bodies meeting. The walls upon which they
are placed must be at least four feet below the surface and
three feet above, and must be clamped with iron, and, even
then, they would hardly sustain so heavy a weight as you
propose, running at four miles an hour on wheels. As to
wood, it would not last a week; they must be covered with
iron, and that, too, very thick and strong. The. means of
stopping these carriages without a heavy shock, and of pre-
venting them from running into each other (for there would be
so many on the road at once) would be very difficult, and in
case of accidental or necessary stops to take wood, water,
and the like, many accidents would happen. The . carriage
for condensing water would be very troublesome. Upon the
• whole, I fear the expense would be much greater than that of a
canal, without being so convenient.
What men whose minds were awakening to the
future possibilities had sometimes to suffer is difficult
to realize now : —
Henry Meigs, a member of the New York Legislature in
1817, a young man of fine talents, lost his influence, ruined
his prospects, and came to be regarded as a proper subject
for a straight-jacket because he expressed his belief that
steam-carriages would be operated successfully on land. —
C. F. Carter, "'When Railroads Were New" page 8.
It was in 1825 that George Stephenson, of Eng-
land, the pioneer of steam-railways, was allowed to
drive his first locomotive over the Stockton-Darling-
ton coal-and-mineral tramway line, " with a signalman
on horseback in advance.' 1 That same locomotive is
still to be seen on a platform in the Darlington station,
rude and out of date, but a mechanism that revolution-
ized human locomotion over the earth. In 1829
Stephenson's "Rocket", was built, the first high-
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speed locomotive, and next year the short Liverpool-
Manchester line showed that the era of steam-railway
passenger traffic was really at hand. M'Carthy says
in his history : —
The London and Birmingham Railway was opened through
its whole length in 1838. The Liverpool and Preston line
was opened the same year. The Liverpool and Birmingham
had been opened the year before; the London and Croy-
don was opened the year after. The act for the transmission
of mails by railways was passed in 1838. In the same year
Old print of locomotive, type of 1829
it was noted as an unparalledj and to many an almost in-
credible, triumph of human energy and science over time and.
space, that a locomotive had been able to travel at a speed of
thirty-seven miles an hour.
June 18, 1842, the Railway Times, of England,
recorded: ''Her Majesty made her first railway trip
on /Monday last." In 1843 Louis Philippe, king of
France, proposed to take his family by rail from Paris
to Rouen, on their journey to his summer chateau at
Bizy, some distance, beyond Rouen. But we are
told: —
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224 The Hand of God in History
The council of ministers, on being acquainted with His
Majesty's project, held a sitting, and came to the conclusion
that this mode of traveling by railway was not sufficiently
secure to admit of its being used by the king, and consequently
His Majesty went to Bizy with post-horses. — W. M. Ac-
worth, "Railways of England, 11 page iq. ' -
In the United States, which has' witnessed so great
a development of railway traffic, the first experiments
with steam locomotives were made in 1829. In that
year even the horse-railway was a marvel. We read
in Griffith's u Annals of Baltimore,'' published In
1833: —
December 14 (1829), thirty-seven persons were drawn by
one horse, in a car planned by Mr. Ross Winans, of New
Jersey, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at a rate of about
ten miles per hour, or as fast as the horse could trot or gallop;
which was done in the presence, and to the astonishment, of a
multitude of spectators, who, not haying witnessed such an
exhibition, could scarcely realize the effect.
The Baltimore and Ohio was worked by horse-
power until 1832. Now the change to steam was fast
taking hold. Time could no longer wait. Strange,
is it not? to read of New England, in 1842 : —
Dorchester, Mass., in a town meeting assembled in 1842,
instructed its representatives in the legislature to "use their
utmost endeavors to prevent, if possible, so great a calamity
to our town as must be the location of any railroad through
it." — " When Railroads Were New, 11 page 11.
The New York Herald, reviewing the beginnings
of systematic railway development in America,
says : —
Cornelius Vanderbilt opened a railway office on Manhattan
Island in 1844, and that was the beginning of the railway
methods that have grown into such enormous proportions on
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the island to-day, with ninety-six railway corporations and
all of their direct and indirect interests represented here.
All of this means the interests of 280,000 miles of railway
track, which cost $19,000,000,000, carrying 1 ,000,000,000
passengers and 1,700,000,000 tons of freight annually.—
Jan. 22, iqii.
The mileage mentioned is more than sufficient
to girdle the globe ten times over; and think of the
systems in all the continents, linking together city and
country, and states and provinces. And note how
the successful development of these wonder-working
facilities dates from the time of 1844, — just before and
after, — when the hour came that was to see the mes-
sage of " the everlasting gospel." carried quickly to all
nations, warning the world of the approaching end.
We read of the beginnings of Scotland's railways: —
. The coal-fields of Dalkeith were brought into communi-
cation with the capital [Edinburgh] by means of a railway,
which continued to be drawn by horses until 1845. — Scottish
Geog. Magazine, June, iqio.
The times just following were the years of rail-
way -extension on the continent of Europe and in *
America. The iron trail was soon pushing along to
open unbroken wildernesses to civilization and settle-
ment. In 1862 Congress authorized the Union Pa-
cific extension. May 10, 1869, at the head of Great
Salt Lake, the line from California met the line from
the Mississippi Valley. The last tie was laid — ;of
laurel wood, silver-banded. The last spikes were
driven, a golden one from California, one of silver
from Nevada, and another of gold, silver, and iron,
from Arizona; and, standing by the two locomotives
facing each other, the workers saluted the first trans-
15 ■
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continental railway running from ocean to ocean.
Bret Harte, the poet of the old-time West, put into
words the message of the two engines standing
there: —
"Pilots touching, head to head,
Facing in the single track,
Half a world behind each back."
The one from the East said : —
"Listen! Where the Atlantic beats
Shores of snow and summer heats;
- Where the Indian autumn skies
Paint the woods with wampum dyes,
I have chased the flying sun."
The one from the West replied: —
. . I bring the East to you;
All the Orient, all Cathay,
Find through me the shortest way;
And the sua you follow here
Rises in my hemisphere."
Now the iron rails span the continents of Europe
and Asia, and very soon the Cape to Cairo system will
meet in the heart of the Dark Continent, with side
lines running out to open all the great divisions of
Africa's territory. South American lines are crossing
wildernesses and piercing mountain chains again and
again. By steamship and steam-railway almost any
part of the world is more accessible to-day than re-
mote parts of a single province were two generations
ago. Where the narrow Isthmus of Suez blocked the
way from sea to sea, the Suez Canal opened a new
highway to the Orient; and now the Panama Canal
comes to join the Atlantic and Pacific, shortening
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i
distances by thousands of miles in a single journey.
Not so many years ago Jules Verne wrote a book,
"Round the World in Eighty Days," the point of his
tale depending on exaggeration, and the impos-
sibility of so rapid a journey. The romance of the
early days of this generation is surpassed by the facts
of the present. A Paris despatch of Aug. 26, 191 1,
said : —
Andre Jaeger-Schmidt completed his round-the-world
dash in the office of Excelsior, the newspaper he represents,
at two' minutes, nineteen and two-fifth's seconds after nine
' o'clock this morning, setting a record for globe-circling of 39
days, 19 hours, 43 minutes, 37 4-5 seconds. — Washington
Times,
What is the meaning of this change in the history
of human locomotion and world travel? It is a sud-
den development. Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, the
scientist, says : —
From the earliest historic and even in prehistoric times
till the construction of our great railways in the second quar-
ter of the present century [the nineteenth], there had been
absolutely no change in the methods of human locomotion.
— " The Wonderful Century, 11 page 7.
Why, in that second quarter of the nineteenth
century, should this change break. abruptly upon the
world? In that same second quarter of the cen-
tury the time of the prophecy came, when, as the
prophet saw in vision, the message of the everlast-
ing gospel was to be carried swiftly to every nation
' and tongue and people.
Up to within a few years of the coming of the
judgment-hour, in 1844, men were traveling about the
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228 The Hand of God in History
world just as Abraham did, or as men traveled in the
days of ancient Babylon. For nearly six thousand
years that was the history of man. But the time was
drawing near when the closing gospel message was
to be carried swiftly to all the world,, and suddenly
the whole history of- man changed, so far as methods
of swift locomotion are concerned. There came the
steamship, the steam-railway, the . application of
electricity to locomotion, and all the facilities that
this generation has for swift communication with all
the earth.
It is the hand of God. This is the generation,
according to the sure word of prophecy, in which the
work of evangelizing all nations is to be done; and to
this generation has come these material factors for
hastening the work to completion. Truly, it is the
marvelous working of God's direct providence.
When Israel went out of Egypt, the Lord opened
the Red Sea before them. Where there was no way,
the living God "made the depths of the sea a way for
the ransomed to pass over." When the generation
came in which "the everlasting gospel" was to be
carried to every nation and tongue and people as a
preparation for the coming of the Lord in power and
glory, it was not sufficient that a way be provided
through merely one little arm of a sea. The living
God, the same who wrought in the ancient days, made
a pathway over all the seas.
"He hath made the deep as dry,
He hath smote for us a pathway '
to the ends of all the earth."
It is the hand of the living God. The world is full
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of material evidences of. the providential workings of
the Lord of hosts in our day, preparing the way for
the fulfilment of all that the "sure worH of prophecy"
has spoken concerning the finishing of the gospel work
in the earth.
Along with the new means for rapid transit over
land and sea, came also the modern postal system,
and the harnessing of the electric current for the quick
transmission of news, both agencies that act a mighty
part in bringing the world together and spreading in-
creasing light and knowledge over the earth to-day.
The postal system is so ordinary a part of our life
that we scarcely give a thought to the fact that it is
really a very modern thing; for Rowland Hill, of Eng-
land, the orginator of the cheap system of postage,
died only in the seventies. Harriet Martineau tells
the following story of the manner in which Mr. Hill
was led to give attention to the improvement of the
postal system : — ^
Coleridge, when a young man, was walking through the
lake district, when he one day saw the postman deliver a
letter to a woman at a cottage door. The woman turned it
over and examined it, and then returned it, saying she could
not pay the postage, which was a shilling. Hearing that the-
letter was from her brother, Coleridge paid the postage in
spite of the manifest unwillingness of the woman. As soon
as the postman was out of sight, she showed Coleridge how his
money had been wasted, as far as she was concerned. The.
sheet was blank. There was an "agreement between her
brother and herself that as long as all went well with him, he
should send a blank sheet in this way once a quarter; and she
thus had tidings of him without expense of postage. Most
persons would have remembered this incident as a curious
story to tell; but there was one mind which wakened up at
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230 The Hand of God in History
once to a sense of the significance pf the fact. It struck Mr.
Rowland Hill that there must be something wrong in a system
which drove a brother and sister to cheating in order to gratify
their desire to hear of each other's welfare. — McCarthy's
" Short History of Our Own Times" page 10.
Rowland Hill's plan of postal reform was taken up
by the British government in 1839, and between that
date and 1843 the modern system was well estab-
lished in Great Britain. It quickly spread to other
lands, and in 1874 the Universal Postal Union was
formed. This agency, which has come to this gen-
eration, is a wonderful factor, not only in the world's
life and business contact, but in the world's evan-
gelization. Not a mail-ship sails the sea that is not
Courtesy Australasian Traveler
Camel Mail Coach of Australia
carrying from some source books or other publications
to help spread the light of truth abroad. The prompt
communication with the ' fields enables all. the mis-
sionary and Bible societies to direct a work that would
seem impossible without the universal postal system,
whose circuits run over remote foot-paths in Africa
and Asia, and by sledge routes into the scattered
winter settlements along the Arctic Sea.
Well we know that it was no mere accidental
coincidence that minds in different lands were set
working simultaneously on the problem of the electric
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telegraph. It was in those years of the advent
awakening that agencies for a quick work were spring-
ing into successful operation. M'Carthy says: —
It is a somewhat curious coincidence that in the year
[1837] when Professor Wheatstone and Mr. Cooke took out
their first patent "for improvements in giving signals and
sounding alarms in distant places by means of electric cur-
rents transmitted through metallic circuit," Professor Morse,
the American electrician, applied to Congress for aid in the
construction, and carrying on of a small electric telegraph to
convey messages a short distance, and made the application
without success. In the following year he came to this coun-
try [England] to obtain a patent for his invention ; but he was
refused. He had come too late. Our own countrymen were
beforehand with him.— Id., page Q.
Wheatstone said of the night of July 25, 1837,
when his short line from Euston to Camden Town
(North London) carried its first message : —
Never did I feel such a tumultuous sensation before, as
when all alone in the still room I heard the needles click;
and as I spelled the words, I felt all the magnitude of the in-
vention now proved to be practicable beyond cavil or dis-
pute. — W. F. Jeans, "Lives of the Electricians " page 144.
Samuel F. B. Morse's system was the one more
generally adopted, and his name stands more than
any other for the new order. Speaking of the coming
of the electric telegraph, Sir Robert Inglis, as presi-
dent of the British Association, in 1847 said: —
The system is daily extending. It was, however; in the
United States of America that it was first adopted on a great
scale, by Professor Morse, in 1844, and it is there that it is
now already developing most extensively. — Id., page 285.
Morse had demonstrated his invention on a toy
scale in the New York University, in 1835. a But
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232 ' The Hand of God in History
the winter of 1843 found him working with Congress
to secure passage of a bill for a long-distance trial of the
new method. He met general opposition and ridi-
cule; but just as he was ready to give up, his bill got
through; and in May, 1844, his line from Baltimore
to Washington carried its first message, a text of
Scripture: —
. - - (W) . . . . (h) . - (a) - (t) (h) . - (a) - (t)
(h) - - . (G) . . (o) ...(d).-- (w) . . . (r) . . (o)
. . - (u) - - . (g) . . . . (h) - (t). ("What hath God
wrought!")
Mr. Morse always felt that the new agency was in
the order of special providence. Speaking at a ban-
quet given him in New York, Dec. 31, 1868, he said: — ■
If not a sparrow falls to the ground without a definite
purpose in the plans of Infinite Wisdom, can the creation of
an instrument so vitally affecting the interests of the whole
human race have an origin less humble than the Father of
every good and perfect gift? I am sure I have the sympathy
of such an assembly as is here gathered together, if in all'
humility, and in the sincerity of a grateful heart, ' I use the
words of Inspiration in ascribing honor and praise to him to
whom first of all and most of all it is preeminently due. " Not
unto us, not unto us, but to God be all the glory " — not,
What hath man, but, "What hath God wrought!"*— id.,
page 315.
Now the network of wires covers the continents;
and over "the gray level plains of ooze," as Kipling
says, "the shell-burred cables creep" from land to
land beneath all the seas, —
♦Shortly before his death, April 2, 1872, in ripe old age, Professor
Morse, speaking of his love for Bible study, said: " I love to be
studying the Guide- Book of the country to which I am going ; I
wish to know more and more about it."
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"Joining hands in the gloom, a league from the last of the sun.
Hush! men talk to-day o'er the waste of the ultimate slime,
And a new word runs between, whispering, ' Let us be one.' "
It is a wonderful thing. Information is flashed
from one end of the earth to the other; and all. the
world watches for news of the daily happenings when-
ever a crisis arises in the most remote quarter of the
earth. It is a daily factor in the work of hastening the
evangelization of the world in this generation. And
when did it come into being? — In the days just be-
fore the opening of the judgment-hour era. In fact,
a decisive step in the successful development was that
long-distance. message in May, 1844. Verily, ''What
hath God wrought !"
As the final crisis comes pressing nearer and nearer,
the good news of the coming Saviour and the signs
of his approach are heralded as by the wings of the
lightnings from land to land. Events in the. nations
that have a significance in the fulfilment of prophecy
are made known through the press in all the world.
For the first time in history, this generation is watch-
ing occurrences in all lands from day to day as the -
history is made. Is it not because events to-day are
leading directly to the second coming of Christ and
the end of the world?
One incident may be cited as suggesting the pos-
sibilities of this agency as a witness-carrier for the
truth. A young Seventh-day Adventist in a Euro-
pean country was answering before a court for his
loyalty to God's Sabbath. The account of the trial
— the Scriptural reasons he gave for the faith that
was in him, and the sentence of the court — was sent
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out by news agencies and reproduced in the news-
papers of Europe, Asia, North America, and South
America. The young man's answer for Christ before,
the court was really made before an audience of
millions. The Lord has many ways of working; and
in his providence new agencies have come into ex-
istence in this generation to hasten the witness of the
coming kingdom to all nations.
Now comes yet another marvel - — wireless teleg-
raphy. Marconi signaled his first message from the
Old World to the New, from England to Newfound-
land, in 1 90 1. Now the British empire has a round-
the-world system of wireless telegraphy. Washing-
ton's new wireless tower speaks to Key West, and
Panama, and San Francisco. A ship in danger at sea
sends out into the ether the sputtering signal "SOS,"
and within a radius of two hundred miles or more
every ship prepares to rush to the rescue.
These are days of marvels. And all these facili-
ties are agencies not only for spreading general light
and knowledge, but are pressed directly into service
as factors in the world's evangelization.
Last of all, as a contribution to new modes of
transit, come now the air-ship and the aeroplane, fly-
ing in the heavens'. Most studied for their possibili-
ties in war, they may yet have a part to act in hasten-
ing on the "gospel of peace." Our brethren in one
European country — where full liberty of public
religious worship is denied to Protestants- — were
led to think of the air-ship as a possible evangelizing
agency, when a prince of the royal house took with
him in his air-ship a package of invitation cards
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The Hand of God in History
announcing the topics of a series of Advexltist lectures
on fulfilling prophecy, dropping the cards as he sailed
, over two countries.
Space does not permit even the mention of many
other developments of this " time of the end" that
are factors in hastening the spread of light and knowl-
edge and bringing all peoples of the earth within
sound of the gospel message.
The living God is able to bring into service every
power and every agency in the universe for the finish-
ing of the gospel work in this closing hour of his
judgment.
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CHAPTER XXVII
" Then Shall the End Come "
In the vision of the closing gospel work, the prophet
saw the message of Rev. 14: 6-12 carried swiftly during
the judgment-hour to "every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people and then he beheld the
white cloud, with the Son of man coming to reap the
harvest of the earth. When the last gospel message
of warning and invitation has been carried to all
nations, Christ will come. , .
The prophecy pointed to a time when all nations
and tongues were to be brought within hearing of the
gospel message. A . generation ago comparatively
little was known of the vast interiors of Africa, Asia,
and South America. Rear- Admiral Wharton, of the
British navy, says: —
I hear people complain that Africa goes slow. When I
look at what has been effected in my own lifetime, it appears
to me that on the contrary it has been rushed. The maps
that I learned- from as a boy showed the whole interior as a
blank. There are now no parts that are not more or less
known. Railways are running over regions unknown forty
years ago.— London Geographical Journal, October, 1905.
The following from Mill's "International Geog-
raphy" shows how organized and systematic geo-
graphical work has been timed to fit into the great
plan of world-evangelization in this generation : —
237
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The Hand of God in History
The first [geographical society] was founded at Paris in
1821, the second at Berlin in 1828, and the third, which is
now the largest and most influential, at London in 1830.
There were in 1896 no less than 83 active geographical so-
cieties in Europe, 6 in Asia, 6 in North America, 4 in South
America, 4 in Africa, and 4 in Australia; 107 altogether, with
a total membership of 50,000 persons. There are also at
least 153 different geographical journals or magazines pub-
lished regularly in all parts of the world. It may safely be
said that this argues a more wide-spread interest in geog-
raphy than exists in any other science.
These are some of the forces that have been work-
ing to leave not a corner of the world unknown in our
generation, nor a tongue beyond our knowledge.
Why have vast regions hitherto unknown and un-
charted been opened up in our day? Surely be-
cause with the coming of the hour of .God's judgment,
in 1844, came, the time of the prophecy when the
message of " the everlasting gospel " was to be carried
to every tribe and people; and no longer was any part
of the world to be barred of access or left in obscurity.
In 1842 the first four treaty ports of China were .
opened, with privilege of residential missionary oc-
cupation. In the history of African missions the years
from 1 841 to i860 are set down as the years of ex-
tension into the interior. It was in 1844 tna ^ Krapf
landed at Mombasa, and from the grave of his wife
sent the message to Europe: —
This is a sign that you have commenced the struggle ;
the hour is at hand when you are summoned to the conver-
sion of Africa from its eastern shore. — "Africa Waiting, 1 '
page 73. ' .
"Livingstone's overmastering thought began to
grow upon him in 1845,". says the book just quoted.
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"Then Shall the End Come" 239
"We find him saying: 'Who will penetrate through
Africa?'" And erelong, moved by an impelling
power, he turned his face northward, to be the greatest
Livingstone, African missionary and explorer
single factor under Providence in opening the Dark
Continent.
It was in 1844 that Allen Gardiner established the
Patagonian, or South American, Missionary Society,
which first began to arouse Christendom to the needs
of the Neglected Continent.
In 1843 a youth was publicly executed in Con-
stantinople for turning from Mohammedanism.
Digitized by the Center for Adventist Research
240 The Hand of God in History
Next year the Sublime Porte engaged to take effec-
tual measures to prevent such persecution, and the
door to the Moslem peoples was officially open. " The
year 1844 is memorable in Turkey and among the
Mohammedans/' says Dr. Barton, "for this record
of concessions in the interests of religious liberty in
Turkey/' — " Daybreak in Turkey" page 251.
One position after another was occupied by the
missionary advance. Dr. A. T. Pierson wrote of
conditions in the period just before these times, and of
the days of falling barriers that followed after: —
Most countries shut out Christian missions by organized
opposition, so that to attempt to bear the good tidings was
simply to dare death for Christ's sake; : the only welcome
awaiting God's messengers was that of cannibal oyens,
merciless prisons, Or martyr graves. But, as the little band
advanced, on every hand the walls of Jericho fell, and the
iron gates opened of their own accord. India, Siam, Burma,
China, Japan, Turkey, Africa, Mexico, South America, the
Papal States, and Korea were successively and successfully
entered. Within five years, from 1853 to 1858, new fa-
cilities were given to the entrance and occupation of seven
different countries, together embracing half the world's pop-
ulation. — 11 Modern Mission Century," page 2$. ~ .
There are few blank spaces on the map to-day.
Practically all lands and all peoples are spread open
to view. At an International Geographical Congress
in New York City, Sir John Murray introduced the
following resolution : — - '
The Eighth International Geographical Congress, real-
izing that the only untouched fields for geographical discovery
are the regions immediately surrounding the poles of the
earth, desires to place on record its sense of the importance of
forthwith completing . the systematic exploration of the
polar areas.
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"Then Shall the End Come"
241
It is as if the angel of Revelation 14 were now
pointing to literally "every nation, and kindred, and
tongue, and people," all placed within reach in this
generation, for the first time since the human family
was spread abroad over the face of the earth.
Away beyond the feet of the missionary the high-
ways are still being prepared for a quick work. As an
illustration of changes in hitherto little-known regions
Map showing only remaining unexplored areas, each year
being reduced
of Africa take the following statements regarding the
French territory : —
Nothing, indeed, shows more graphically the civiliizng
work done by the French in these almost unknown lands
than the means of communication; there being in operation
to-day in French Africa 6,000 miles of railway, 25,000 miles
of telegraph, and 10,000 miles of telephone. Think of being
able to buy a round-trip ticket from Paris to Timbuktu; of
16
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"Then Shall the End Come 11
243
sending Christmas or New-year's greetings to your family by
telegraph from the middle of the Sahara; or of sitting in the
American consulate at Tamatave [Madagascar] and chatting
with a friend at Antananarivo, three hundred miles away.
And, as a final touch, they have erected a wireless installation
at Fez [Morocco], by means of which his Shereefian Majesty
dash-dotted his respects 'to the president of the republic at
Paris.— E. 0. Powell, Outlook] Oct. 28, 191 1.
Along with the opening up of all countries, the
Spirit pf God is manifestly preparing the hearts of the
peoples for this time of the final witnessing. All
missionaries bear witness to changing conditions
within very recent years that make for the hastening
forward of world evangelization. Secretary Paton
of the American Board said a few years ago: —
Within five years the missionary situation of the world
has been so transformed as to be hardly recognizable by those
who studied the problem in the previous period. There has
been nothing like this in history since the preparation of the
Roman empire for the advent pf Christ. We are in a new ful-
ness of time.
And the great World's Missionary Congress, held
in Edinburgh, in 1 9 10, declared its united conviction
in a message addressed to all Christendom: —
The next ten years will, in all probability, constitute the .
turning-point in human history, and may be of more critical
importance in determining the spiritual evolution of man-
kind than many centuries of ordinary experience.
We have entered the time of crisis in the history
of the world and of the work of God in the earth.
The special gospel message for the hour is the message
of reformation and preparation for the coming of the
Lord — the advent message recorded in Revelation
14. That is ' ' the everlasting gospel ' ' for the time j ust •
Digitized by the Center for'Adventist Research
244
The Hand of God in History
preceding the second advent of Christ. Every one
who reads the chapter must see that this is so. In-
spiration plainly says it.
Wherever the light of God's Word is being spread,
the way is being directly prepared for this last mes-
sage. Every Bible that is read is
teaching the coming of the Lord,
and "the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus."
We frequently hear of
persons in various lands
who have been con-
vinced as to the Sab-
bath and advent truths
by their own reading of
the Bible,
guided by
the H o 1 y
Spirit,with
no knowl-
Comparative populations in great mission fields
Digitized by the Center for Adventist Research
."Then Shall the End Come" 245
edge that a people are gathering in all the earth who
are proclaiming these truths.
Every year thousands of new voices take up the
cry of the message. All the work of the century of
missions has been preparing the world for. this last
gospel witness and warning. And now, as Jesus said,
in giving the signs both of the destruction of Jeru-
salem, in that day, and of the end of the world at his
second coming : —
" This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto ail nations; and then shall the end
come." Matt. 24: 14.
Through the long ages since man fell and lost Eden,
time has- been waiting for this glad day. Through
all the centuries the Lord has revealed himself as the
living God, able to save to the uttermost. All the
lines of consecutive prophecy have been bearing wit-
ness through the ages to the hand of the living God in
human history; and with one accord they now point
to this time in which we live as the world's crisis.
"He will finish the work, and cut it* short in right-
eousness: because a short work will the Lord make
upon the earth.' ' Rom. 9: 28. God's purpose is at
last to be fulfilled. Christ is to talce the kingdom.
While the nations are arming for the final Arma-
geddon, the last message of "the everlasting gospel"
is speeding to the world. By his Spirit, the living
God is able to speak to every heart on earth. Only
the Lord can tell when the witness has truly been borne
to "all nations;" and "then shall the end come."
Christ will appear in glory, consuming sin and sinners
and bringing salvation to those who have put their
Digitized by the Center for Adventist Research
246
The Hand of God in History
trust in him. " Be ye also ready: for in such an hour
as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
"Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; When his branch is
yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is
nigh : so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know
that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you,
This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away." Matt. 24: 32-35.
"Watchman, what of the night? .. . . The
morning cometh, and also the night.'*
Isa. 21 : 11, 12.
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By W. A. Spicer
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is a 32-page pamphlet designed to emphasize
the advantages of concerted effort in Chris-
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Undeniable arguments in* the Old Testa-
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BIBLE FOOTLIGHTS
A book of studies on the im-
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f Revised and Enlarged 4
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